Molecules containing an indole or the benzofuran core are common in nature. These types of compounds have various interesting bioactivities and can play key roles as mediators in biological processes.

Christoforos G. Kokotos, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece, and colleagues have developed a sustainable protocol that allows the fast synthesis of both indole- and benzofuran-derived molecules (pictured below). The team used the commercially available palladium-on-carbon (Pd/C) catalyst to convert a variety of substituted allyl-anilines and allyl-phenols in dimethylformamide (DMF) at 100 °C.

This protocol delivers the desired products in good yields and tolerates a variety of substitution patterns. The catalyst can be recycled and reused up to five times. Pd/C is stable in air, easy to remove by simple filtration, and relatively low-cost.

• Palladium on Carbon-catalyzed Synthesis of Benzofuran and Indole Derivatives,
  Anatoli Savvidou, Dimitrios Ioannis Tzaras, Giorgos Koutoulogenis, Alexis Theodorou, Christoforos G. Kokotos,
  Eur. J. Org. Chem. 2019.
  https://doi.org/10.1002/ejoc.201900577