Dimethyl 2,2'-[Carbonylbis(azanediyl)](2S,2'S)-bis[3-(4-hydroxyphenyl)propanoate]

The thus-far unknown ureic derivative dimethyl 2,2\u2032-[carbonylbis(azanediyl)](2S,2\u2032S)-bis[3-(4-hydroxyphenyl)propanoate] has been efficiently synthesized by enantiospecific oxidative carbonylation of readily available l-tyrosine methyl ester, using a very simple catalytic system (PdI2 in conjunction with KI) under relatively mild conditions (100 \ub0C for 5 h in DME as the solvent and under 20 atm of a 4:1 mixture CO-air)