For the first time a series of titanium salts of α-keto aromatic acids has been prepared to be attacked by RLi. In this system, however, Li reagents exhibit a new property unreported ever before: they reduce the keto-acids to the corresponding mandelic acids in some cases with good yields. Further studies find that RLi can also add to the keto-acids with varied ratioes of mole to those reduced by use of different titanates, α-keto acids and Li reagents.

Key words: REDUCTION REACTION, ADDITION REACTION, LITHIUM REAGENT