Development of a green scalable route toward the synthesis of bio-based 2-pyrones

2-Pyrones are molecules that gained significant attention in the field of medicine and synthetic chemistry. They are broadly present in nature, where they play an important role in the defense mechanisms of the organisms in which they are present. Due to their unique structure, 2-pyrones hold immense potential both for the development of pharmacologically active compounds and as building blocks in synthetic chemistry; for these reasons those molecules have attracted researcher's attention during the past decade. In this work, we present the synthesis optimization of bio-based 2-pyrones starting from bio sourced galactaric acid by means of a statistical design of experiment, its scale up from 500 mg to 100 g, the solvent recycling to make the reaction greener as well as the synthesis of galactaric acid from galactose.