[reaction: see text] A novel and efficient procedure for the generation of the reactive indole-2,3-quinodimethane intermediates from the allenylanilines is described. The indole-2,3-quinodimethane intermediates were captured by several dienophiles to afford the corresponding tetrahydro- and dihydrocarbazole derivatives. This method is significantly different from the previously reported ones, which involve the 1,4-elimination or its related reactions of the indole derivatives that possess suitable substituents at both the C-2 and C-3 positions.

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The two conditions for the preparation of the reactive N-(tert-butoxycarbonyl)indolo-2,3-quinodimethane intermediate were developed by the reaction of the N-(tert-butoxycarbonyl)-2-(1-ethoxycarbonyloxymethylallenyl)aniline with K(2)CO(3) or Pd(2)(dba)(3) in refluxing toluene. The resulting N-(tert-butoxycarbonyl)indolo-2,3-quinodimethane was captured by several alkenyl and alkynyl dienophiles to provide the corresponding tetrahydro- and dihydrocarbazole derivatives.

A new and reliable procedure for constructing five- to seven-membered carbocycles via an endo-mode ring-closing reaction of 1-phenylsulfonylallenes with a substituent that has a terminal active methine moiety at the C1-position has been developed. Trisubstituted 1-phenylsulfonylallenes underwent a similar endo-mode ring-closing reaction to produce the corresponding five- to seven-membered carbocycles, while the formation of six- and seven-membered carbocycles from the corresponding tetrasubstituted allene was not realized. In addition, the introduction of an aromatic ring to the alkyl side chain of the starting allenes made possible the construction not only of normal-sized carbocycles but also an eight-membered framework.

A Novel Generation of Indole-2,3-quinodimethanes. -Generation of title quinodimethanes is efficiently achieved by reaction of α-(acetoxymethyl)allenylanilines (I) with base. They serve as dienes in cycloaddition reactions and can be quenched with a variety of dienophiles like fumarate (II), maleate (Va) or DMAD (VII) to give carbazole derivatives. -(KURODA, N.; TAKAHASHI, Y.; YOSHINAGA, K.; MUKAI*, C.;