Regioselective Synthesis of Tetrasubstituted Pyrroles by 1,3-Dipolar Cycloaddition and Spontaneous Decarboxylation

We developed a novel regioselective synthesis of tetrasubstituted pyrroles via the classic 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of α,β-unsaturated benzofuran-3(2H)-one and azlactones (1) followed by spontaneous decarboxylation. The complete regiochemical control of tetrasubstituted pyrroles was confirmed by the orthogonal synthesis of complementary regioisomers (7a and 7b) simply by using different azlactones (1a and 1b, respectively).