In this paper, we wish to report a facile methylation of aimple quinones as revealed by their reactions with methylcobalamin in aqueous solutions. Previous report 1) from this laboratory concerned with similar reactions but by the use of synthetic cobalt complex such as methylcobaloxime (bis (dimethylglyoximato) cobalt) in CH3OH-CH3CN solutions,where the trdnsmethylations were recognized to only a very msall extent unless some transition metal salts were added to the reaction system. In the present work, C-methylation of 1, 4-benzoquinone (BQ) as well as of 1, 4-naphthoquinone (NQ) was found to take place to 30-50 % yield without any additive at 37? in the presence of methylcobalamin (CH3-B12) in aqueous solutions.
