General procedure for the synthesis of ethyl 2-(3-hydroxyphenyl)acetate (S16-2) from ethanol and 3-hydroxyphenylacetic acid: 8 mL of concentrated sulfuric acid was added to a 200 mL ethanol solution of 3-hydroxyphenylacetic acid (S16-1; 10 g, 65.8 mmol). The reaction mixture was heated to reflux overnight. Upon completion of the reaction, the reaction mixture was concentrated under reduced pressure. The residue was dissolved in ethyl acetate and washed with distilled water. The organic layers were combined, washed with saturated brine and dried over anhydrous magnesium sulfate. After filtration, the solvent was removed by evaporation to give the crude product. The crude product was purified by fast column chromatography to afford the target compound S16-2 in colorless oily form in quantitative yield. The structure of the product was confirmed by 1H NMR (500 MHz, CDCl3): δ 7.35 (br, 1H), 7.12 (m, 1H), 6.69-6.78 (m, 3H), 4.12 (m, 2H), 3.53 (s, 2H), 1.21 (m, 3H).
