A new mild method for the one-pot synthesis of pyridines

Polysubstituted pyridines are prepared in good yield and with total regiocontrol by the one-pot reaction of an alkynone, 1,3-dicarbonyl compound and ammonium acetate in alcoholic solvents. This new three-component heteroannulation reaction proceeds under mild conditions in the absence of an additional acid catalyst and has been used in the synthesis of dimethyl sulfomycinamate, the acidic methanolysis degradation product of the sulfomycin family of thiopeptide antibiotics.