A practical and cost-effective approach to polysubstituted pyrimidine derivatives via DBU mediated redox isomerization of propargyl alcohol and subsequent N-C-N fragment condensation

A straightforward, efficient yet effortless approach for the synthesis of structurally important triarylated pyrimidine derivatives has been successfully developed using secondary propargyl alcohol and commercially available amidines under mild basic conditions. The reaction is believed to proceed via base-mediated redox isomerization of propargyl alcohol into a chalcone and a subsequent N-C-N fragment condensation reaction with the in situ generated chalcone. The procedure may be successfully employed to generate a large array of polysubstituted pyrimidine derivatives from milligram to multigram scale.