Synthesis of new guanidine derivatives from 2′,3′,4′,9′-tetrahydrospiro[piperidine-4,1′-[1H]pyrido[3,4-b]indole]

The reaction of the isothiourea derivative 2 with methylaminc or pyrrolidine resulted in guanidines 3a-3b . Using hydrazine under the same conditions the tetrazole derivative 4 was obtained. On reacting 2 with piperidine, morpholine, methylhydrazine, phenylhydrazine, hydroxylamine or sodium hydroxide, cycliza-tion took place leading to the novel 4-cyanimino-1,2,3,4,6,7,12,12b-octahydro-3,12b-ethanopyrim-ido[1′,6′:1,2]pyrido[3,4-b]indole ( 5 ). Some structural aspects of 5 and other model compounds were analysed mainly by ¹³C nmr spectroscopy.