C-H acylation of aniline derivatives with α-oxocarboxylic acids using ruthenium catalyst.

An efficient and convenient synthetic strategy for ruthenium(II)-catalyzed ortho -acylation of N -(2-pyridyl)-anilines using α-oxycarboxylic acids as acyl sources is described. The procedure can smoothly proceed under mild conditions, showing good functional group tolerance. Valuable ortho -acylated aniline products have been obtained with moderate to good yields. Furthermore, the reaction could be easily scaled up to the gram scale.