Reductivemethylation of the naphthoicesters (3), (9), (13), and (15) was carried out in distilled liquid ammonia in the presence of sodium to give the esters (19), (20), (21), and (22), respectively.
Yeast and fungi reduce methoxy-substituted 2-cyano-1-tetralones to cis-2-cyano-1-tetralols with high enantiomeric purity, but respective opposite absolute configurations, in moderate to high yields.