A new facile preparation of furan-2(3H)-ones and 2,3,5-trisubstituted furans by a sequential O-acylation/Wittig(/O-acylation) reaction has been developed. The easily accessible 2-(triphenylphosphoranylidene)-succinic acid 1-ester 3 reacted with acid chloride produced furan-2(3H)-ones 4 in good yields in the presence of DMAP via sequential 0-acylation and intramolecular Wittig reaction of acid anhydride. Subsequently, the 2,3,5-trisubstituted furans 5 were prepared from furan-2(3H)-ones 4 and diverse aryl chlorides in presence of triethylamine th...
