of 0 570 g of silver trifluoromethanesulfonate in 15 ml of anhydrous diethyl ether was added dropwise at room temperature after 1 hour of stirring the reaction mixture was diluted with dichloromethane washed with an aqueous solution of nahco 3 and finally with water the solvent was removed in vacuo and the residue taken up in chloroform the insoluble starting material was removed by filtration and the filtrate was evaporated to a residue which was then dissolved in methanol containing a trace of triethylamine the resulting solution was left to stand for 2 hours at room temperature removal of the solvent in vacuo and purification of the residue by column chromatography silica gel chloroform acetone 95 5 v v afforded 0 370 g of n trifluoroacetyl carminomycin i r cf 3 co 0 5 grams of n trifluoroacetyl carminomycin i r cf 3 co was dissolved in 0 15 n naoh and left standing for 2 hours at room temperature after acidification with oxalic acid and neutralization with aqueous nahco 3 the free base with extracted with dichloromethane which was washed with water the solvent was removed in vacuo and the resulting residue was dissolved in dry dichloromethane and treated with 1 equivalent of hcl in methanol the solution was then concentrated in vacuo and diethyl ether was added to precipitate 0 300 g of carminomycin hydrochloride i r h which was found to be.