2-Propynyl 2-hydroxy-benzoate.

The title compound, C(10)H(8)O(3), has been synthesized as part of our investigations into the generation of new anti-bacterial agents and serves as a building block for the synthesis of compound libraries. The compound crystallizes with two independent mol-ecules in the asymmetric unit. The transoid propynyl ester groups are coplanar with the 2-hydroxy-benzoate group with maximum deviations of -0.3507 (3) and 0.1591 (3) Å for the terminal carbons, with intra-molecular O-H⋯O hydrogen bonding providing rigidity to the structure and ensuring that the reactivity of the alkyne is not compromised by steric factors. The propynyl group forms inter-molecular C-H⋯O inter-actions with the phenolic O atom. Supra-molecular chains along the b axis are found for both mol-ecules with links by weak O-H⋯O inter-molecular inter-actions in the first independent mol-ecule and C-H⋯O inter-actions in the second.