Sustainable Syntheses of Paracetamol and Ibuprofen from Biorenewable β-pinene.

Abstract

Scalable processes have been developed to convert β-pinene into 4-isopropenylcyclohexanone which is then used as a feedstock for the divergent synthesis of sustainable versions of the common painkillers, paracetamol and ibuprofen. Both synthetic routes use Pd(0) catalysed reactions to aromatise the cyclohexenyl rings of key intermediates to produce the benzenoid ring systems of both drugs. The potential of using bioderived 4-hydroxyacetophenone as a drop-in feedstock replacement to produce sustainable aromatic products is also discussed within a terpene biorefinery context.