Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Anthranilic Acid from Indigo

Master_Que - 30-6-2015 at 05:32

I read somewhere that anthranilic acid was first made with indigo...
so, I wanted to try to make it this way. I was going to reduce the indigo to leucoindigo with copper electrodes, and then I heard that you then add KOH and keep the reaction very cold.

I had a few questions... What reaction is this called? And can the KOH be present already when I'm reducing the indigo.

Thanks

Boffis - 30-6-2015 at 09:50

I don't know how practical this method is but I have certainly seen it referred to in several old organic chemistry books, check out some of those on the forum library or if you can find Richter vol 3 Aromatic compounds and they will probably give you a reference to the original paper but it may be very old and almost certainly in German.