Acetophenone can be oxidized to phenylglyoxal in high yield using aqueous selenium dioxide at 90 C after four hours.
Phenyl glyoxal can be reacted with a number of 4,5 diamino pyrimidines to give different pterins or pteridines.
Phenyl glyoxal can be reacted with acetonoxime to get phenylglyoxal oxime. This product can be reacted with alpha-amino nitriles giving rise to pyrazine heterocycles – reaction in methanol will do the trick.