A simple, mild, and regioselective method for the benzylation of carbohydrate derivatives promoted by silver carbonate.

A simple, mild, and regioselective method has been developed for the selective benzylation and p-methoxybenzylation of carbohydrate derivatives in high yields using Ag(2)CO(3) as the promoter. Benzylation of base-labile substrates, for which other reported methods are of little use, has been performed in high yields.