The title compound, C10H10O4, was synthesized from tetra-methyl-1,4-benzo-quinone. In the crystal, the almost planar mol-ecule (r.m.s. deviation = 0.024 Å) forms intra-molecular hydrogen bonds between the aldehyde and hy-droxy groups and exhibits C 2v symmetry. This achiral mol-ecule crystallizes in the chiral space group P21 with inter-molecular O-H⋯O and C-H⋯O hydrogen bonding and C-H⋯π and C=O⋯π inter-actions stabilizing the crystal packing.
Keywords: alkylating agents; chiral crystallization; crystal structure.