Sustainable Syntheses of Paracetamol and Ibuprofen from Biorenewable β-pinene

Scalable processes have been developed to convert β-pinene into 4-isopropenylcyclohexanone, which is then used as a feedstock for the divergent synthesis of sustainable versions of the common painkillers, paracetamol and ibuprofen. Both synthetic routes use Pd⁰ catalysed reactions to aromatize the cyclohexenyl rings of key intermediates to produce the benzenoid ring systems of both drugs. The potential of using bioderived 4-hydroxyacetophenone as a drop-in feedstock replacement to produce sustainable aromatic products is also discussed within a terpene biorefinery context.