Patent attributes
A method for synthesizing florfenicol comprises the steps of cyclization, selective reduction, fluorination, ring opening, deprotection, acylation, esterification with sulfonic acids, epimerization and hydrolysis. Florfenicol is prepared by successively purifying, selectively reducing, and epimerizing chiral (R)-amino ketones. This improves atom economy, reduces waste water pollution and accordingly reduces costs for treating waste water and pollution to the environment, thus lowering costs and simplifying the process. Furthermore, triethylamine hydrofluoride is used as a fluorinating reagent, resulting in improved safety, because of the use of liquid reaction conditions as compared to gaseous reaction conditions, and reduced corrosion to the reaction equipment.