cooled and washed with 5 solution of sodium bicarbonate and dried over anhydrous sodium sulphate after removing the solvent under reduced pressure 1 but 1 enyl pyrrolidin 2 one i was obtained by distillation as a liquid 68 2 g 83 2 1 h nmr cdcl 3 u03b4 1 02 3h t 2 03 2 15 4h m 2 45 2h t 3 5 2h t 5 01 1h m and 6 85 1h d 13 c nmr cdcl 3 u03b4 172 52 122 91 113 8 45 09 31 07 23 03 17 27 and 14 27 ir 2962 2930 1698 1663 1253 cm u2212 1 sodium hydride 8 63 g 0 36 mol of 60 dispersion in a mineral oil was washed with toluene to remove mineral oil to this 20 ml of dimethylformamide dmf 1 but 1 enyl pyrrolidin 2 one 25 g 0 1798 mol and a solution of methyl nicotinate 20 94 g 0 152 mol in 15 ml of dmf were added the reaction mixture was heated at 90 u00b0 c for 2 hrs dmf was partially removed under reduced pressure 50 ml water added further cooled to 0 10 u00b0 c and ph adjusted to 7 using hcl the reaction mixture was extracted with ethyl acetate and dried over na 2 so 4 after removing the solvent under reduced pressure a yellow solid was obtained which on recrystallisation with diisopropyl ether gave 1 but 1 enyl 3 nicotinoyl pyrrolidin 2 one ii 35 1 g 94 yield 95 hplc m r 65 66 u00b0 c 1 h nmr cdcl 3 u03b4 9 3 1h d 8 8 1h d 8 41 1h dt 7 4 1h m.