An initial investigation on the general course of osmium-catalysed aminohydroxylation of (E)-stilbene 1 with chloramine-T yielded varying amounts of an amino ketone. Subsequent optimisation led to the development of a protocol, which did no longer provide any detectable amount of amino alcohol, but rather yielded the respective amino ketone 2a as the major product (71% isolated yield, Scheme 1), together with minor amounts of benzil (14–35%), which is assumed to ...
