Hydrochloric Acid → N-Acetyl-L-phenylalanine

Participants

Reaction Steps

After 4.96 g of L-phenylalanine was dissolved in 5% sodium hydrogencarbonate aqueous solution, 3.4 ml of acetic anhydride was dropwise added to the solution over an hour under ice cooling. After completion of the dropwise addition, the mixture was stirred for 2 hours at room temperature. Then 17 ml of hydrochloric acid was added to the reaction mixture to render the system acidic. The precipitated white solid was extracted once with 100 ml of ethyl acetate and twice with 40 ml each of the same solvent. The oily layer was dried over anhydrous sodium sulfate and the solvent was distilled off to give 5.61 g of N-acetyl-L-phenylalanine as white crystalline powders. Yield, 90.3%.

Provenance & Evidence