An efficient preparation of N-acetyl enamides catalyzed by Ru(II) complexes

Reductive acetylation of ketoximes to give the corresponding acyl enamides can be achieved by using 1-3 mol % of [RuCl2(p-cymene)]2 as the catalyst in the presence of KI as the reducing agent in high yields. This procedure has been applied to synthesize N-[1-(1,3-benzodioxol-5-yl)-1-butenyl]acetamide (6), which is the intermediate for the synthesis of DMP 777, an inhibitor of leukocyte elastase.