A novel highly stereoselective synthesis of 2,3-disubstituted 3H-quinazoline-4-one derivatives.

[structure: see text]. An efficient three-step synthesis of chiral 3H-quinazoline-4-one derivatives from commercial materials is disclosed. The Mumm reaction of imidoyl chloride with alpha-amino acids followed by reductive cyclization affords enantiomerically pure (ee >93%) quinazoline-4-ones in good overall yield. A comparison with existing approaches indicates that this method is superior for hindered substrates.