Base-Mediated Meerwein–Ponndorf–Verley Reduction of Aromatic and Heterocyclic Ketones

An experimental protocol to achieve the Meerwein–Ponndorf–Verley (MPV) reduction of ketones under mildly basic conditions is reported. The transformation is tolerant of a range of ketone substrates, including O - and S -containing heterocycles, is scalable, and shows potential to be used as a platform to access enantioenriched products. These studies provide a general method for achieving the reduction of ketones under mildly basic conditions and offer an alternative protocol to more well-known Al-based MPV reduction conditions.