Recent advances in the synthetic method and mechanism for the important N‐heterocyclic compound of 3‐methylindole

Abstract 3‐Methylindole, as an important N‐heterocycle compound, is widely applied in the fields of medicine, agriculture and industry for synthesizing momentous drugs and plant growth regulators as well as the production of spices. Therefore, the efficient synthesis of 3‐methylindole is very important and has attracted much attention from chemists. In this paper, the synthetic methods of 3‐methylindole were classified into Fischer proton rearrangement, radical reaction, coupling cyclization, electrophilic reaction, nucleophilic reaction, reduction reaction and oxidation reaction. Also, the recent advances in the synthetic method and mechanism were reviewed, in which the most promising method for the green and cheap synthesis of 3‐methylindole from biomass‐derived glycerol and aniline was proposed.