The Morita-Baylis-Hillman (MBH) reaction is a carbon-carbon bond forming transformation between an electrophile, typically an aldehyde, and an activated olefin. MBH adducts obtained from 2-hydroxy- benzaldehydes and cyclic enones are potential substrates for the synthesis of xanthenone and chromenone derivatives. In this work, we investigated conditions to obtain tetrahydro-1H-xanthen-1-ones and chromen- 1-ones directly via a Morita-Baylis-Hillman/oxa-Michael/elimination cascade catalyzed by a bifunctional, bicyclic imidazolyl alcohol (BIA), which proved to be an effective catalyst for this transformation. The reactions were performed at room temperature in water to give the products in 10-74 % yield
