An efficient combination of B(C6F5)3 and NaBH4 was developed for direct reductive amination of aldehydes. A wide range of functional groups such as ester, nitro, nitrile, halogen, alkene, heterocycles were tolerated. Also, acid sensitive protecting groups like TBDMS and TBDPS were not affected. In addition, the present methodology was extended for tandem amination-amidation of 3-formyl-indole-2-carboxylic acids with substituted anilines to afford 1,2-dihydropyrrolo[3,4-b]indol-3(4H)-ones.
