Mild and Chemoselective Cleavage of p-Nitrobenzyl Esters and p-Nitrobenzyloxycarbonyl Amines with Zinc Dust

pNitrobenzyl esters and p-nitrobenzyloxycarbonyl amines have been efficiently deprotected by treatment with zinc dust in THF -0.35 M phosphate buffer solution (pH 6) to obtain the parent carboxylic acids and amines.Olefinic bond.S-N bond, and diphenylmethyl-and benzyloxycarbonylamino groups are intact under the deprotection conditions.