amines are employed the reaction mixture must either be maintained at from 0 u00b0 c to room temperature or if heating is required the reaction must be placed in a sealed reaction vessel it is preferred to use atmospheric pressure for the reaction and to keep the temperature at about room temperature or less the reaction is complete in about 1 hour to several days with most reactions requiring stirring overnight the products i a and i b are isolated using techniques known to those skilled in this art the starting materials ii wherein x is sulfur are prepared according to the following reaction scheme str12 in the above reaction scheme methylbenzofuran 2 carboxylic acid is esterified using ethanol in the presence of acid to prepare the ethyl ester derivative thereof the preferred acid is a mineral acid such as sulfuric the reaction is carried out generally at reflux for from 12 to 36 hours using ethanol as the solvent the methyl group is brominated with a brominating agent preferably a free radical brominating agent such as n bromosuccinimide in the presence of a free radical initiator such as u03b1 u03b1 39 azobisisobutyronitrile used in catalytic amounts the reaction is carried out at from 35 u00b0 c to the reflux temperature of the reaction mixture and is generally complete in from.