The invention relates to the field of
medicinal chemistry, and provides a preparation method of
metoclopramide intermediate methyl 2-methoxy-4-acetamidobenzoate, which comprises the following steps: mixing methyl 2-methoxy-4-acetamidobenzoate and
acetic anhydride in a
molar ratio of 1: (1.2-2.0) in the absence of a
solvent, and reacting at the temperature of 50-80 DEG C; and after the reaction, adding methyl tert-butyl
ether for
crystallization, cooling and filtering to obtain a product. The method has the advantages that
acetic anhydride is used as an
acylation reagent; on one hand, compared with
acetyl chloride, the reaction is more stable, the reaction
controllability is better, and the product purity is high; on the other hand,
acetic anhydride is liquid and can serve as a
solvent, no extra
solvent needs to be added, and cost is saved; meanwhile, no solvent is added, so that the post-treatment process is simplified, the operation is simple, and the yield is higher. The 2-methoxy-4-acetamidobenzoic acid methyl ester prepared on the basis of the method has the purity of 99.8% or above and the yield of 90% or above, and is suitable for industrial production.