acetophenone: Synthesis of pyridine, pyridazine and

The continuing interest in the chemistry of b-amino-a,g-dicyanocrotononitrile (1) (1-6) forms a part of the systematic efforts to obtain pyridines, pyrimidines, pyridazines, thio-phenes, thiazoles and their analogs. The importance of such compounds is due to their diverse pharmaceutical activities in neurological disorders (7), as receptor antagonists (8, 9), tubulin inhibitors (10), kinase inhibitors (11) and for anticancer activity (12). More-over, annulated nitrogen heterocycles, bearing pyridine and benzene, constitute a class of biologically active compounds that are potent anti-inflammatory agents (13), anti-bac-terial agents (14), inhibitors of gastric acid secretion (15) and calcium channel blockers (16). Such biological and pharmaceutical importance of the different classes of hetero-cyclic derivatives prompted us to study the chemical reactivity of 2-amino-4-phenyl-penta-1,3-diene-1,1,3-tricarbonitrile 2 towards some chemical reagents with the aim of forming biologically active heterocyclic derivatives