appropriate sabesan can j chem 58 2645 1980polyphosphate ester dellaria et al synth commun 16 1043 1986alkylchloroformate and kim and kim j org chem 50 560 1985triethylamine general arrieta et al synth commun 13 471 1983 haslam tetrahedron 36 2409 2433 1980______________________________________ synthesis of captopril s aspirinate str2 we have found that the following method is preferred the starting material chosen for the synthesis was o benzyloxy benzoic acid 4 which was synthesised by the pathway outlined in scheme a salicyclic acid 1 was dissolved in methanol water 10 1 and treated with potassium carbonate 1 eqv and then stirred at ambient temperature for one hour the di ionic salt 2 which was obtained by evaporation of the solvent mix was treated with two molar equivalents of benzyl bromide in dimethyl formamide dmf and heated to 60 u00b0 c for four hours the solution was diluted with ether and extracted with water the ether layer was dried with sodium sulphate evaporated and chromatographed with petroleum spirit b p 40 u00b0 60 u00b0 c ether as eluent on silica gel giving the dibenzyl salicylate 3 dibenzyl salicylate 3 was dissolved in a thf methanol water solution 2 1 1 and an equal volume of 2m sodium hydroxide was added.