Phenols can be cyclopalladated after being converted into dialkoxy-O-phosph
ite esters. The usefulness of this novel synthetic method has been demonstr
ated on the examples of natural phenols, L-(+)-tyrosine and (+)-estrone. Th
e molecular structure of cyclopalladated estrone has been determined using
an X-ray method. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.