Available online www.jocpr.com Journal of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Research, 2015, 7(10):466-469 Research Article ISSN : 0975-7384 CODEN(USA) : JCPRC5 466 A facile synthesis of (±)-Baclofean via Fe(acac) 3 catalyzed Michael addition and Pinner reaction Manojkumar U. Chopade a * and Anil U. Chopade b a Sant Dnyaneshwar Mahavidyalaya, Department of Chemistry, Soegaon, Dist: Aurangabad, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India b Dahiwadi College, Dahiwadi, Rayat Shikshan Sansthan, Satara, Shivaji University Kolhapur, Maharashtra, India _____________________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT An effective and convenient procedure for the Michael addition using Fe (acac) 3 (1 mol %) as an effective catalyst, catalyses the Michael addition reaction of nitro methane to α-cyano cinnamate ester followed by Pinner reaction to produce corresponding diethyl 2-(1-(4-chlorophenyl)-2-nitroethyl)malonate with good yields under mild condition with high yield. Accordingly, we applied this synthetic strategy for synthesis of (±)-Baclofean. Cl NH 2. HCl COOH (±)-Baclofen 5 CN COOEt COOEt COOEt NO 2 Cl Cl Catalyst Michael addition of nitromethane to an α-cyano cinnamate ester is a key step for the synthesis of (±)-baclofen. Keywords: Michael addition; Fe(acac) 3; Nitro methane; α-Cyano cinnamic ester, Amino acids. _____________________________________________________________________________________________ INTRODUCTION The transition metal(TM) catalysis plays an important role in modern organic chemistry [1]. The most of the reaction catalyzed by Lewis acid are stoichiometric therefore, recently have great attention towards the transition metal catalyzed reaction in synthetic chemistry due to their numerous advantages low cost, nontoxic or interesting catalytic activity, reaction proceed cleanly with high efficiency and easy to handle, at ambient reaction condition without formation of salt. Although precious metal catalysts have their own impact on the field, alternatively non- precious metals like Cu, Co, Ce, Ni and Fe are emerging as important catalysts. To access C-C bonds, novel transition metal complexes or salts have previously been used as catalysts. Iron is well known as one of the most abundant and cheapest metal. However, the use of Iron salt as important Lewis acid in organic transformation such as the homo coupling [2], Grignard reaction [3], alkylation [4], alkenylation of organo manganese [5], aryl coupling reaction [6], N-Arylatation [7], C-N bond cleavage [8] and Michael addition [9] etc. Michael addition reaction is one of the most useful methods for the formation of C-C bonds. Many asymmetric variants exist for the Michael addition to nitroalkenes has been developed as a powerful tool in organic synthesis [9], because Michael adducts of nitroalkanes are versatile building blocks in agricultural and pharmaceutical industry. In particular, α,β-unsaturated ketone and ester are versatile acceptors for the synthesis of γ-amino acids, amino