Pyrazine Condensations from Malononitrile

Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras-600 036

Manuscript received 26 April 1983, revised 23 April 1984, accepted 15 August 1984

Tetrasubstituted pyrazines and pyridinopyrazines are rare to find or obtain. This paper reports that they are obtained from malononitrile. They can be modified at will for use in medicine. Two reactions are proposed for obtaining the highly basic intermediate II which is highly reactive to yield pyrazines.