One-pot multicomponent synthesis of polysubstituted indolizines

Concise and efficient four-component tandem approaches to polysubstituted indolizines have been developed under metal-free and mild aerobic conditions in refluxing acetonitrile. The mechanism of the novel reactions was proposed involving the formation of pyridinium ylides and α,β-unsaturated ketones with subsequent 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition and aromatization reaction.