Novel synthesis of bicycles with fused pyrrole, indole, oxazole, and imidazole rings.

Reactions of benzotriazol-1-yl(1H-pyrrol-2-yl)methanone 10 and benzotriazol-1-yl(1H-indol-2-yl)methanone 11 with diverse ketones, isocyanates, and isothiocyanates in the presence of base afforded pyrrolo[1,2-c]oxazol-1-ones 1, oxazolo[3,4-a]indol-1-ones 2, pyrrolo[1,2-c]imidazoles 3, and imidazo[1,5-a]indoles 4 by a simple one-step procedure.