Abstract
For the work on the synthesis of 2-acyl-5-methoxynaphthoquinones as tricyclic analogues of daunomycinone1, we wanted to develop an efficient regioselective synthesis of 5-methoxy-2-acyl-1-naphthols without using Lewis acids. This requirement precluded the use of the thermal Fries but not the photo-Fries rearrangement. Although the mechanistic aspects of the photo reaction have received much study2, the reaction has been little used preparatively3 because it usually gives poor yields of hydroxy ketones even when only one product is possible.