However, the acidic conditions necessary for these electrophilic substitutions limit the functional groups that can be incorporated. Therefore, there remains a need for an effective method to modify the A ring under mild and neutral conditions. presence of a gold(I) catalyst under neutral to mildly acidic conditions. This electrophilic coordination of the gold catalyst to a triple bond promotes cyclization to form isocoumarin 6 with an attached Au(I), generating electrophile 7, which then couples with nucleophile 8 to produce compound 9. Asao and colleagues first reported gold-catalyzed O-and N-alkylations of alcohols and sulfonamides using 2-alkynylbenzoates. Yu and co-workers developed glycosyl 2-alkynylbenzoates as glycosyl donors, allowing for the synthesis of glycosides with acid-sensitive functional groups. Recently, Doi and co-workers have reported on the preparation of the amide/carbamate-linked N,Oacetals from amidomethyl 2-alkynylbenzoates with the bulky amides and alcohols possessing acidsensitive protecting groups. We hypothesized that amidomethyl 2-alkynylbenzoates would be effective electrophiles for modifying the A ring of EGCG with acidically sensitive functional groups.