Abstract An o-anisidine-Pd (OAc) 2 catalytic system for the direct co-catalytic Saegusa oxidation of β-aryl substituted aldehydes to α, β-unsaturated aldehydes has been developed. The use of o-anisidine in place of (S)-diphenylprolinol made the process more simply and cost-effective. The process not only features the use of unmodified aldehydes rather than enol silyl ethers, but also gives moderate to good yields (44–72%).
