Iron(iii) chloride-catalyzed mechanochemical cascade synthesis of highly-substituted pyrrolyl indoles

Iron(iii) chloride has been found to serve as an efficient catalyst for a mechanochemical (ball milling) one-pot four- component cascade reaction of phenyl glyoxal, anilines, indoles and activated alkyne affording highly-substituted 3-(1H-pyrrol-2-yl)-1H-indoles. The procedure is beneficial because of mild conditions, easily available starting materials, cheap catalyst and possibility for scaling.