Reductive amidation of nitroarenes: a practical approach for the amidation of natural products

A simple and practical approach for the one-pot conversion of nitroarenes into amide derivatives has been developed. Zinc and acetic acid are utilized as a reducing agent, and acyl chloride and triethylamine are used as the acylating agent in DMF with good yield (∼60%) of the amide. This method was applicable to manzamine A (1), where the yield of 6-cyclohexamidemanzamine A (7) was significantly improved (56%) by this approach relative to (17%) by beginning with the amine.