Under conventional heating or microwave irradiation, reactions of nitrogen-containing heterocycles 1 with paraformaldehyde gave cycloaminomethanols 3 in good yields. It was found that the ratio of reactants and reaction temperature affected the reaction yield, and the reaction time under microwave irradiation was much shorter than with the one under the conventional heating. The resulting intermediates 3 reacted easily with isocyanates 4 under conventional heating or microwave irradiation to give the corresponding O-cycloaminomethyl carbamates 5a～5m. The structure of compounds 5 was characterized with IR, ¹H NMR, MS spectra and elemental analysis, and some of them were further characterized with ¹³C NMR. The insecticidal activity and herbicidal activity of compounds 5 showed that the insecticidal activity was quite lower than the herbicidal activity, and compounds 5a, 5d, 5e and 5m exhibited control efficacy of up to 100% against Cucumis sativm or Amaranthus sp.

Key words: insecticidal activity, carbamate, herbicidal activity, synthesis, nitrogen-containing heterocycle