A palladium-catalyzed aminocarbonylation strategy exploiting chloroform as a CO source has been developed for the synthesis of biologically potent 2-amidoimidazopyridine scaffolds. The aminocarbonylation reaction was found to be general with a range of amines and substituted imidazopyridines. Preliminary biological evaluation of cytotoxicity on selected examples provides scope for future investigations.
![Graphical abstract: Chloroform as a carbon monoxide source in palladium-catalyzed synthesis of 2-amidoimidazo[1,2-a]pyridines](http://hg.y866.cn/compound/lib/scimg/usr/1/C8OB01486H.jpg)
