Acetonedicarboxylic acid


Acetonedicarboxylic acid, 3-oxoglutaric acid or β-ketoglutaric acid is a simple dicarboxylic acid.

Preparation

It is commercially available but may also be prepared by decarbonylation of citric acid in fuming sulfuric acid:

Applications

Acetonedicarboxylic acid and its derivatives are primarily used as building blocks in organic chemistry, particularly in the synthesis of heterocyclic rings and in the Weiss–Cook reaction.
Acetonedicarboxylic acid is well-known to be used in the Robinson tropinone synthesis.
The presence of β-ketoglutaric acid in human urine can be used as a diagnostic test for the overgrowth of harmful gut flora such as Candida albicans.