An exception of eschweiler‐clarke methylation: Cyclocondensation of α‐amino amides with formaldehyde and formic acid

An exception of Eschweiler‐Clarke methylation was found for α‐amino amides. The α‐amino amides on treatment with formaldehyde and formic acid produce cyclocondensation products, imidazolidin‐4‐ones, but N‐methylation process becomes important when three substituents of the α‐amino amides are very bulky. On the other hand, N‐methylation is the only product for Eschweiler‐Clarke methylation of the α‐amino amides with N,N‐disubstituted amide.