Although the preparation of key intermediates, dibenzocyclooctadiene and dibenzocyclooctatetraene derivatives for these compounds, has been described by several workersp6 there are few reports of synthetic approaches to construct the above basic structures via Friedel-Crafts intramolecular acylation. 5, 6 We now report the preparation of 2, 3, 8, 9-tetramethoxy-5, 6-dihydrodibenzo [a, e] cyclooctatriene (2) in five steps from ...