Methyl levulinate

Colorless liquid

Methyl levulinate is mainly used as raw material on perfume.

ChEBI: Methyl levulinate is an oxo carboxylic acid.

Journal of the American Chemical Society, 70, p. 2624, 1948 DOI: 10.1021/ja01188a004
Tetrahedron, 42, p. 4247, 1986 DOI: 10.1016/S0040-4020(01)87649-3
Synthetic Communications, 13, p. 509, 1983 DOI: 10.1080/00397918308081830

Methyl levulinate can be synthesized from glucose in the presence of a few drops of dilute sulfuric acid in methanol.

The acid was converted to the ester by boiling in methanol (0.5 M solution) in the presence of concentrated sulfuric acid (500 L). The reaction was followed by TLC (heptane/EtOAc 2:1). When only trace amounts of acid remained, the reaction mixture was cooled, concentrated, diluted with NaHCO3 solution, extracted with DCM, dried with MgSO4 and concentrated to give the end product methyl acetylpropionate.