Unambiguous structure elucidation of the reaction products of 3-acyl-4-methoxy-1-methylquinolinones with hydroxylamine via NMR spectroscopy

Reaction of 3-acyl-4-methoxy-1-methylquinolinones 2a,b with hydroxylamine has been investigated under different experimental conditions. Whereas compound 2a gives rise selectively and exclusively to the regioisomeric isoxazolo[4,5-c]- or isoxazolo[4,3-c]quinolin-4(5H)one (compound 3a or 4a, respectively), reaction of 2b always led to a mixture of the required isoxazole together with the oxazole derivative. Structural elucidation of all products has been independently achieved by multinuclear (13C and 15N) magnetic resonance spectroscopy.