The Grieco elimination is an organic reaction whereby a primary alcohol is converted to a terminal olefin via a selenide.
First, the alcohol with o-nitrophenylselenocyanate and tributylphosphine is converted to the organic selenide via nucleophilic substitution. In the second step, the selenide is oxidized to a selenium oxide, with splitting into the selenol and the terminal olefin. The course of the reaction is similar to the Cope elimination. This reaction is applied in the totality synthesis of taxol by Danishefsky.
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