Summary.A detailed study has shown that all possible aromatic dimethoxy-substituted 3,4-dihydroisoquinolines can be partially 0-demethylated by controlled acid hydrolysis. Based on the structure elucidation of the monophenols thus obtained, it was established that preferential cleavage occurs at the 5-mcthoxyl with the 5,6-and 5,s-isomers 1 and 3, respectively, at the 6-methoxyl with the 6,s-isomer 4, at the 7-methoxyl with the 5,7-isomer 5 , and at the 8-methoxyl with the 7,s-isomer 2.I t was previously reported that treatment of 6,7-dimethoxy-3,4-dihydroisoquinoline with mineral acid under carefully controlled conditions effected preferential cleavage of the 7-methoxy group to afford 7-hydroxy-6-methoxy-3,4-dihydroisoquinoline in good yield [l]. More recently this approach was utilized in the facile synthesis of the alkaloid corypalline (7-hydroxy-6-methoxy-Z-methyl-l,2,3,4-tetra-We have now extended this cleavage study to the remaining five dimethoxy-substituted 3,4-dihydroisoquinolines 1-5 and have found that they too could be partially 0-demethylated with mineral acid under controlled conditions 2, to give the monophenols 6-10 as major products (Scheme I) 3). Presented in part by one of us ( A . B.) a t the 13th Symposium on the Chemistry of Natural Products, Sapporo, Japan, September 25-27, 1967, Symposium Papers pp. 177-186. The concentration of mineral acid and substrate as well as the reaction temperature and time influenced the extent of ether cleavage. Conditions were optimized, as visualized by thin layer chromatography, to favour the formation of only one main product. This was possible in all instances except for the hydrolysis of 2 where the formation of a significant amount of the corresponding diphenol could not be avoided. Unless otherwise indicated, the R substituents are hydrogens.
3,