Gas-phase basicities (GB) of strong organic bases containing the imino grou
p were re-examined in the light of the re-evaluated GB values for the refer
ence bases given in a recent compilation of Hunter and Lias. Structural (in
ternal) effects which influence the basicity are discussed and general rela
tions for the GB prediction are proposed for simple alkyl amidines and guan
idines. These relations were used for estimation of cyclization and intramo
lecular H-bonding effects. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.