The key intermediate in the synthetic sequence was 2-acetyl-4-nitrophenol (10). The literature offers two methods for its preparation: (a) the Fries migration 6 of 4-nitrophenyl acetate (9) and (b) nitration of o-hydroxy acetophenone. 7 The Fries migration of 4-nitrophenyl acetate (9) using 2.2 equiv of anhydrous AlCl 3 in dry nitrobenzene gave a 25% yield of 10 after steam distillation to remove nitrobenzene. Attempts to carry out the migration by heating a concentrated ...