Novel synthesis of ethyl 4-(2-hydroxypropan-2-yl)-2-propyl-1H -imidazole-5-carboxylate: A key intermediate of olmesartan

Junrong Jiang and Weiqiang Yan

Abstract

A novel method for synthesis of ethyl 4-(2-hydroxypropan-2-yl)-2-propyl-1H-imidazole-5 -carboxylate(2), a key intermediate of Olmesartan was reported. The compound 2 was synthesized from starting material ethyl oxalate (4) and ethyl chloroacetate (5) by three steps. The final compound was purified by simple acid-base treatment to get a product with 99.5% HPLC purity.