The amide unit is one of the most widely occurring functional groups. It is present as a key feature in many important natural products and man-made compounds. 1 For example (Scheme 1), N-acylalkylenediamines2 are used to react with 4-amino-2-chloro-6, 7- dimethoxyquinazolines to give a variety of antihypertensive agents. 3 Though the direct conversion of esters to amides has been reported, the previous application of this method ...