A novel synthetic route to 1,2-dimethyl-5-phenyl-1H-imidazo[4,5-b]pyridin-7-ol

Heating a mixture of 4-amino-1,2-dimethyl-1H-imidazole-5-carboxylic acid ethyl ester with ethyl benzoyl acetate resulted in the formation of 8-ethoxycarbonyl-6,7-dimethyl-4-oxo-2-phenylimidazo[1,5-a]pyrimidin-5-ium, hydroxide, inner salt. This compound was then transformed into 1,2-dimethyl-5-phenyl-1H-imidazo-[4,5-b]pyridin-7-ol via several intermediates. A number of structurally interesting compounds were also isolated during the course of this work. Thus, the target ring system was formed by a circuitous series of ring-chain tautomerizations/rearrangements.