Nucleophilic Opening of Epoxide by Guanidine. A Route to Potential Substrates or Inhibitors of NO Synthases1

An efficient method for the synthesis of monosubstituted guanidines has been developed through the regiospecific nucleophilic opening of an epoxide by free guanidine followed by in situ selective N,N’-bis-benzyloxycarbonyl protection of the guanidine moiety.