General procedure for the amidation of esters catalyzed by sodium methoxideA mixture of sodium methoxide (0.4 mmol, 5 mol% based on ester), ester (8.0 mmol, 1.0 eq), amine (10.4 mmol, 1.3 eq), and toluene (2.0 mL) was heated at 50 °C for periodic time under an argon flow condition. The resulting mixture was quenched with aqueous saturated NH4Cl. After extraction with ethyl acetate, the product was purified by flash column chromatography or recrystallization
General procedure for the amidation of α-amino esters catalyzed by sodium methoxide with 4-trifluoromethylphenolA mixture of sodium methoxide (0.2 mmol, 10 mol% based on ester), 4-trifluoromethylphenol (0.6 mmol, 30 mol% based on ester), ester (2.0 mmol, 1.0 eq), amine (2.6 mmol, 1.3 eq), MS3A (50 mg), and toluene (0.5 mL) was heated at 50 or 70 °C for periodic time under an argon flow condition. The resulting mixture was quenched with aqueous saturated NH4Cl. After extraction with ethyl acetate, the product was purified by flash column chromatography or recrystallization.
