Naureen, Sadia, Ijaz, Fatima, Nazeer, Areesha, Chaudhry, Faryal, Munawar, Munawar Ali, and Khan, Misbahul Ain
An efficient, convenient green approach for the synthesis of indole-based 2,4,5-trisubstituted and 1,2,4,5-tetrasubstituted imidazoles by multicomponent reaction of substituted 2-arylindole-3-carbaldehydes, benzil, substituted anilines, and ammonium acetate using catalytic amino acid (glycine) in ethanol is described. Several amino acids have also been evaluated as organic catalysts for these reactions. The structures of the compounds have been established on the basis of infrared, mass, and1H NMR spectral data. The mild reaction conditions, inexpensive/economical reagents, and good yield show the usefulness of this approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]