Novel and facile selective reduction of carboxylic acid with a samarium diiodide–lanthanide triflate–methanol–base system

The facile selective reduction of carboxylic acids in the presence of an aldehyde or that bearing a formyl group proceeded smoothly with a samarium diiodide–lanthanide triflate–methanol–base system at room temperature to give the corresponding alcohols in good to almost quantitative yield.