Unsaturated vegetable oils and their corresponding fatty acid derivatives constitute interesting renewable platforms for the preparation of heterocycles, notably through the formation of oxygenated intermediates. In this work, fatty imidazoles were prepared from the corresponding 1,2‐diketones through Debus‐Radziszewski reaction. The reaction was optimized under microwave irradiation using a 1,2‐diketone derived from methyl oleate and ammonium acetate as a nitrogen source. Using benzaldehyde as a model substrate, the reaction occurs at 180 °C for 5 min and the desired imidazole was formed in 96 % GC yield. A range of aldehydes was tested under the optimized conditions and the corresponding imidazoles were obtained in 33–99 % isolated yields (20 examples).
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