In the course of investigations3 into the chemistry of citrinin our interest centered at the time on 2, 4-dihydroxy-3-ethyl-5-methylphenylglyoxylic acid (I) as a possible intermediate4 in the synthesis of the structure originally proposed by Coyne, Raistrick and Robin~ on.~ The strong dibasic properties of I prompted us to prepare a number of other hydroxy-and methoxyphenylbenzene by steam distillation from a strongly acid solution. In general the ...
