Also known as: Henry nitroaldol reaction

The Henry reaction is an organic reaction used to convert a nitroalkane with an α-hydrogen and an aldehyde or ketone to a β-nitro alcohol using a base catalyst. The mechanism begins with deprotonation of the nitroalkane by the base to give a resonance stabilize anionic intermediate which subsequently attacks the carbonyl compound to form an alkoxide. The alkoxide then picks up a proton from the conjugate acid of the base (H₂O in this case) to give the final β-nitro alcohol product and regenerate the base catalyst. ^[1]