Synthesis of 1,3,4,14b‐tetrahydro‐2 H ,10 H ‐pyrazino[1,2‐α]‐ pyrrolo[2,1‐c][1,4]benzodiazepines

1,3,4,14b‐Tetrahydro‐2 H ,10 H ‐pyrazino[1,2‐α]pyrrolo[2,1‐c] [1,4]benzodiazepines (1a‐e) were synthesized to investigate their potential CNS activity. The key step in the synthesis was the formation of the 10,11‐dihydro‐5 H ‐pyrrolo[2,1‐c][1,4]benzodiazepine (13) by reduction and concomitant cyclization of the nitroketone (11). Biological evaluation of 1a‐e revealed interesting properties for 1b (CGS 7525A) [2].