Nucleopalladation triggering the oxidative Heck reaction: a general strategy to diverse β-indole ketones.

A simple and efficient palladium-catalyzed oxidative coupling between 2-alkynyl anilines and allylic alcohols is described by using cheap and green dioxygen as the oxidant. These cross-couplings have a large functional group tolerance and are of higher reactivity toward electron nonbaised allylic alcohols. The resultant β-indole ketones are readily converted to pharmaceutically significant β-indole alcohol/amine and pyrrolo[2,1-a]isoquinolines.