It would appear that by choosing the appropriate starting materials, one can synthesize many different substituted benzene rings, including substituents like 1,2-methylenedioxy rings. I uploaded two articles about these types of reactions at
http://www.geocities.com/yingabee/
.
For example, regarding
http://www.geocities.com/yingabee/JOCv68p5961.pdf
, one could choose 10 on the bottom of page 5963 with R being an N-protected (so it won't compete for substitution with the -OTs) NH2-CH2 group, and simple acetylene instead of the 2a/2b, to make phenethylamine. There are gobs more references on these reactions, with ways to regioselectively put a variety substituents on the product benzene ring but obviously I haven't yet researched extensively.
What do ya think?
