Dehydrogenation with benzeneseleninic anhydride in the total synthesis of ergot alkaloids

Abstract
Investigation of the dehydrogenative conversion of indolines into indoles with benzeneseleninic anhydride (1) resulted in the development of an efficient standardised procedure, which was successfully applied to the final steps in first total synthesis of (±)-lysergol (18), (±)-isolysergol (27), and (±)-elymoclavine (29).