Glucose as an eco-friendly reducing agent for a one-pot multicomponent synthesis of quinoxalines

An efficient and scalable one-pot multicomponent process is developed for the synthesis of quinoxalines by using D-glucose as a clean, renewable and an eco-friendly reductant in an alkaline aqueous medium. This protocol eliminates the nitro reduction by using pyrophoric metal catalysts like Pd, Ni, Zn, etc., and cyclization as separate steps for the synthesis of quinoxalines. Gram scale experiments and further substrate scope of the reaction have also been well demonstrated.