An efficient and facile l-proline-catalyzed three-component coupling of 2- hydroxybenzaldehyde, 5, 5-dimethyl-1, 3-cyclohexanedione (dimedone), and indole has been accomplished under mild aqueous micellar conditions to deliver a small library of 9- (1H-indol-3-yl)-xanthen-4-(9H)-ones of potential biological relevance. Under optimized conditions [10mol% of l-proline, water (2mL), SDS (23mg, 0.08 mmol), rt], the reaction was ...