Interactions of the readily available mixture of 1, 3, 6-and 1, 3, 7-octatrienes with the alkali metal salts of alkyl amides have resulted in both a selective isomerization and a cyclization. In the first instance, potassium salts have selectively transformed the 1, 3, 6-octatrienes to 2, 4, 6-octatrienes and, in the second, the octatriene mixture has been converted into methylcycloheptadienes (IV). By a series of glpc and nmr determinations and by ...
