In the course of several ongoing studies, several acyl-protected formaldehyde cyanohydrins were required. The only general literature procedure for the synthesis of compounds of this type involves the reaction of glycolonitrile with a variety of acid chlorides.' The drawbacks of this method are that it requires freshly prepared glycolonitrile, and gives only modest yields (48-74%). We describe herein a simpler method, involving the reaction of carboxylate anions with ...
