Egon Spengler the love interest of Janine Melnitz, the Ghostbusters' secretary, in the first film and both animated series ("Ghostbusters II" excluded their romance due to Ramis' dislike of the subplot, thus having Melnitz date Louis Tully instead). Spengler sometimes appears to be unaware of Melnitz's romantic interest in him, but at times he displays having similar feelings for her, such as when he gave her a geranium as a gift when she expressed an interest in plants (which backfired horribly when it was revealed that the geranium was possessed by a ghost and nearly destroyed her apartment, along with much of
Pictet–Spengler reaction hydrochloric acid forming a tetrahydroisoquinoline. Like the Mannich reaction, aldehydes give good yields while ketones tend to give lower conversion. The Pictet–Spengler reaction has been applied to solid-phase combinatorial chemistry with great success. An analogous reaction with an aryl-β-ethanol is called Oxa-Pictet–Spengler reaction The reaction mechanism occurs by initial formation of an iminium ion (2) followed by electrophilic addition at the 3-position, in accordance with the expected nucleophilicity of indoles, to give the spirocycle 3. After migration of the best migrating group, deprotonation gives the product (5). Replacing an indole with a 3,4-dimethoxyphenyl group give the reaction named the Pictet–Spengler