“…The primary intermediates in these reactions are the phosphonium salts (betaines) depicted as [(MeO 2 C)C À @C(CO 2 Me)-PR þ 3 ] (1), [R 0 (O)C-C(H) À C(@CH 2 )-PR þ 3 ] (2), [R 0 (O)C-C(H)@C(CH 2 ) À -PR þ 3 ] (3) and [(EWG)CH À -CH 2 -PR þ 3 ] (4) EWG@CN, CO 2 R) in Scheme 1 [5]. It must be noted that if the phosphorus(III) compound bears functionalities like -NCO, -NCS or -N 3 , the reaction with activated alkynes would involve these groups also [6]. One of the most important reactions among those shown in Scheme 1 is the Morita-Baylis-Hillman reaction [7] that leads to a diverse number of functionalized and synthetically useful allylic systems.…”