Abstract Trimethylammonium acetic acid betain (1) reacts with phenacyl bromide and ethyl bromoacetate, respectively, to give the ester bromides 2 and 7. These can be hydrolyzed with aqueous sodium hydrogencarbonate at 20° C to yield besides 1 both C-benzoyl- methanol (3) and the glycolic acid ester 8, respectively. The reaction can also be performed in one step by reacting the betain (1)(which can act as a base) in a double molar ratio with ...
