A General Route to the Synthesis of 1,5-Methano- and 1,5-Ethano- 2,3,4,5-tetrahydro-1H-3-benzazepines

A general approach to preparing 1,5-methano-(1) and 1,5-ethano-2,3,4,5-tetrahydro-1H-3-benzazepine (2) is discussed. This strategy involves converting an indanone or tetralone (4) to a cyanohydrin (3) which is subjected to hydrogenolysis followed by lactamization and reduction to provide bicyclic aryl piperidine (1) and bicyclic aryl homopiperidine (2).