The standard preparation of aryl 2-hydroxyimino-N-arylacetamides 2 involves treatment of the corresponding substituted anilines 1 with chloral hydrate in the presence of hydroxylamine hydrochloride. Acid treatment of 2 leads to the isatins 3. The problem in the first step is the availability of chloral hydrate, which is a Drug Enforcement Agency controlled substance (DEA Schedule 4).*-'O To circumvent this problem, we report the use of the ...