. 69,696 (1991).A series of 4-ketomethylquinolines has been prepared and their tautomerism investigated. The compounds were prepared from 4-methylquinoline deprotonated with lithium diisopropylamide or potassium ethoxide and treated with esters. Attempted deprotonation with tert-butyllithium or phenyllithium led to 2-substituted-4-methylquinolines. The simple alkyl or aryl4-ketornethylquinolines exist essentially as the keto forms, but the quinoline-4-pyruvates are exclusively or substantially in the en01 forms.Key words: ketomethyl quinolines, pyruvates, tautornerism, enols. Chem. 69, 696 (1991).On a prCparC une sCrie de 4-~Ctom~thylquinol~ines et on a examink leur tautornkrie. On a prCparC les produits h partir de la 4-mCthylquinolCine dCprotonCe, ? i l'aide du diisopropylamide de lithium ou de 1'Cthylate de potassium, qui a Ct C traitCe par des esters. Des essais de dCprotonation a I'aide du tert-butyllithium ou le phtnyllithium ont conduit h la formation de 4-mCthylquinolkines substitutes en position 2. Les 4-~CtomtthylquinolCines portant des groupements aryles ou alkyles simples existent essentiellernent sous la forme cttonique; toutefois, les quinolCine-4-pyruvates existent exclusivernent ou presque sous la forme Cnolique.Mots cle's : ~CtomCthylquinolCines, pyruvates, tautornkrie, enols.[Traduit par la rCdaction] Introduction We recently conducted detailed investigations into the tautomerism of 2-ketomethylquinolines (I), Scheme 1. By a combination of ir and nrnr spectroscopy it was clearly shown that the enaminone form B was strongly favoured over the ketone form A for 2-ketomethylquinolines where R' = H, CN, or COOEt (R2 = alkyl, aryl, CN, COOEt, etc.). For the compounds with R1 = H, R2 = Me, Et, i-Pr, or t-Bu, the tautomeric mixtures in chloroform had 12-20% of the ketone forms and signals for both forms A and B could clearly be seen in the ir and the 'H, 13c, and 15N nmr spectra. The rest of the structures investigated showed only the enaminone signals. However, compounds of Scheme 1 where R1 = Me or Br were found to be exclusively in the ketone form A.