Study on synthesis of trinexapac-ethyl

Trinexapac-ethyl was synthesized by using acetone and diethyl maleate as the starting material via Michael addition,cyclization,acylation and rearrangement.The total yield of four steps was 63.4%.Structure of the product and intermediate was confirmed by ~1HNMR and MS.This method has many advantages,such as easy operation,low cost and high yield,which can be feasible to large scale preparation.