Reducing aryl alkyl carbonyls

[Chromic]

Well, in my studies I crossed a reduction of aryl alkyl carbonyls (maybe best called benzylic carbonyls?) to aryl akyls, which sort of surprised me because it used H2/Pd giving the same ends as the Wolf-Kishner which has been talked about in

Post 172398 (missing)

(rubberneck: "Wolff-Kishner reduction", Stimulants) but with nearly 100% yields. Anyone tried this on methcathinone or Wellbutrin?

[Sunlight]

CTH reduces carbonyls too, and seems more accesible.

[Rhodium]

True, CTH seems like it is good for almost anything. BTW, the Wolff-Kishner reduction can be carried out in the microwave in 1-2 minutes, I can dig up the ref if you want to.

I don't think the Wolff-Kishner reduction works well with vicinal aminoketones (as in methcathinone) though, as they can self-condense to unusable pyrazines under basic conditions.