Abstract The structure of a metabolite of pholcodine produced by humans is shown, by spectroscopic and synthetic data, to be a morpholin-3-one (amide) derivative rather than the alternative morpholin-2-one (lactone) isomer. Acylation of diethanolamine leads to an N, O- diacyl product even when only 1 equiv. of acylating agent is used. A mechanism is proposed to account for this observation. The appropriately substituted diacyl product can be ...
