Dehydroamino acids represent an important class of compound as they are key intermediates in unusual amino acid and in the design of peptides and are constituents of a variety of naturally occurring antibiotic and phytotoxic peptides. In view of the importance of proteins and peptides containing hydroxyamino acids and the problems associated with their synthesis and dehydration, an investigation was performed on model compounds in order to examine the difficulties of the dehydration reactions. The preparation and properties of the model dehydroalanine derivatives have been studied.

Dehydroamino acids represent an important class of compound as they are key intermediates in unusual amino acid and in the design of peptides and are constituents of a variety of naturally occurring antibiotic and phytotoxic peptides. In view of the importance of proteins and peptides containing hydroxyamino acids and the problems associated with their synthesis and dehydration, an investigation was performed on model compounds in order to examine the difficulties of the dehydration reactions. The preparation and properties of the model dehydroalanine derivatives have been studied.