A novel technique for the efficient synthesis of fused nitrogen hetero
cycles containing various combinations of five- and eight-membered rin
gs has been developed. This method features the ring-closing metathesi
s (RCM), which is catalyzed by the molybdenum alkylidene complex 6, of
alpha,omega-dienes that have a nitrogen atom in the chain linking the
two olefinic functional groups. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science L
td