Hey There - 3-4-2014 at 17:15
Is there a way to cleave the ether on the alpha carbon without damaging the methylenedioxy ring? And how about the double bond on the propyl side
chain to form Safrole?
Chemosynthesis - 3-4-2014 at 17:59
Might be possible to strongly oxidize those alkyl chains to dibenzoic acid, decarboxylate both, halogenate, resolve products, Friedel Crafts alkylate,
then re-etherify the cleaved bridge from the vicinal diphenol. Why do you ask?
Retrosynthesis
leu - 3-4-2014 at 18:41
Piperonyl butoxide is made by etherification and chloromethylation starting from dihydrosafrole which is derived from safrole 
Hoping to cleave one ether without cleaving another is what is known as wishful
thinking 
The question posed should be are any of these reactions reversible
with a change of equilibrium 
That's the answer and the end really does result
from the effort applied 
zed - 7-4-2014 at 17:41
No way Jose.