The low dielec. const. and high self-dissocn. const. of water in a temp. range between 150 and 250 °C make it a very appealing solvent for synthesis. Surprisingly, while org. chem. in water at low temp. or around its crit. point has been investigated in detail, very little seems to be known about the behavior of org. mols. under hydrothermal conditions. The present work thus aims at shedding some light on this field. As a start, we decided to investigate the reactions in which alcs. can undergo in water in the above-mentioned temp. range. Knowing that very strong salt effects on org. reactions have already been obsd. in super crit. water, the impact of salt on the outcome of our tests was also investigated in detail.