The invention belongs to the field of
organic chemistry synthesis and particularly relates to a method for preparing 5-
fluorouracil. The method comprises the following steps: (1) after
nitrogen displacement, adding
sodium methoxide into
toluene, then dripping part of
ethyl formate at first, then dripping methyl fluoroacetate and the rest
ethyl formate, and stirring after dripping for reaction; (2) adding methyl
alcohol and
sodium methoxide, stirring, reducing the temperature to 15-25 DEG C, adding
urea for reaction, removing a
solvent after reaction, re-adding water, cooling, stirring, regulating the pH to 3-4, and filtering to obtain the product. According to the invention, as
ethyl formate and methyl fluoroacetate are mixed and dripped, and the dripping temperature is reduced, loss of ethyl
formate is reduced, accordingly, reaction of ethyl
formate and methyl fluoroacetate is promoted, and the yield is improved to be more than 74.5%; addition of the
solvent is reduced, so that the
solvent reclamation amount can be remarkably reduced and the manufacturing cost is greatly lowered.