Abstract
Long chain N-acylamino acids have been synthesized, generally, by reaction of acyl chlorides with amino acids or amino acid esters followed by hydrolysis.
It was found that when N-lauroylsarcosine was synthesized from lauroyl chloride and sarcosine, rather much lauric acid was found as a contaminant in the reaction mixture.
A new method was studied where an aminonitrile, the intermediate of the Strecker synthesis, was firstly acylated and then hydrolyzed. N-Lauroylsarcosinonitrile was obtained from sarcosinonotrile and lauroyl chloride in two layer solution of ether or benzene and water containing dehydrochloride reagent, and could be purified by vacuum distillation. It was found that N-lauroylsarcosine was obtained in good yield by selective hydrolysis with alkali or acid. The selectivity of this reaction was also studied and over 95% selectivity was obtained by the reaction with 1 N aqueous sodium hydroxide.
