DOI:10.7598/cst2016.1182 Chemical Science Transactions ISSN:2278-3458 2016, 5(1), 202-206 Glycine Catalyzed Synthesis of 3-Indole Derivatives Mediated by PEG-400 in Water ABDUL AHAD and MAQDOOM FAROOQUI * Post Graduate and Research Centre, Dr. Rafiq Zakaria Campus, Maulana Azad College, Rouza Baugh, Aurangabad(M.S), 431001, India maqdoomf789@gmail.com Received 26 November 2015 / Accepted 18 December 2015 Abstract: Glycine in aqueous polyethylene glycol has been utilized as a highly efficient catalytic medium for the multicomponent synthesis of 3-substituted indoles. This protocol provides a convenient and environmentally benign access to corresponding 3- indole derivatives. Keywords: Glycine, PEG-400 in water, 3-Substituted indoles Introduction Indole and its analogues have been found as an essential structural unit in medicinal drugs and in agricultural chemicals with significant physiological activities 1 . Among different indole scaffold containing molecules, 3-substituted indoles are of greater interest as they are medicinally potent and are the key intermediates for the synthesis of some diverse therapeutic agents 2,3 . The importance of these molecules in the field of medicinal chemistry has invited much more interest of organic chemists to develop new synthetic protocols for the preparation of 3-subtitited indoles. Several muticomponent strategies have been developed for the synthesis of substituted indoles 4 . However, the development of convenient, simple and greener synthetic techniques remains a provocative task, particularly for the synthesis of 3-substituted indole, which exhibits important building blocks in many synthetic designs. The multicomponent reaction of benzaldehydes, indole and active methylene compounds for the synthesis of 3-substituted indoles has been accomplished in the presence of different catalysts and reagents such as tetrabutylammonium fluoride 5 , copper (II) sulfonato salen complex 6 , Zn (salphen) complex 7 , N, N 1-dioxide Zn(II) complex 8 and [TBA][Gly] ionic liquid 9 . However some of the protocols have demerits which includes long reaction time, difficult workup, toxic and expensive reagents. To overcome these issues, the development of efficient, clean, feasible and high yielding methods for the synthesis of 3-substituted indoles remains a valid exercise. - Amino acids are found as zwitter ions, having amphoteric character and are useful in numerous organic reactions such as coupling reactions, aldol condensations, Mannich type RESEARCH ARTICLE