Krafft Degradation

F. Krafft, Ber. 12, 1664 (1879).

Conversion of carboxylic acids, especially of high molecular weight, into the next lower homolog by dry distillation of the alkaline earth salt with the corresponding acetate, followed by chromic acid oxidation of the methyl ketone:

F. C. Whitmore, Organic Chemistry (New York, 1951) p 255; F. Klages, Lehrbuch der organischen Chemie I (Berlin, 1952) pp 262, 266, 368. Cf. Barbier-Wieland Degradation.