During the course of a continuing search for a substance with useful antitumor activity, it was desirable to prepare 6, 7-methylenedioxycarbostyril (I) for biological evaluation. 2 Although the synthesis of 6, 7-methylenedioxycarbostyril (I) had been reported by both Narang3 and B ors~ he,~ certain inconsistencies made questionable the result of each procedure. Reduction of 3, 4-methylenedioxy-6-nitrocinnamic acid (Ha) with