Pronase in amino acid technology: Optical resolution of nonproteinogenic α‐amino acids

We describe a practical method to produce pure enantiomers of non‐proteinogenic α‐amino acids by pronase‐catalyzed hydrolysis of their methyl esters. Each of the two pure enantiomers was obtained in high yield, while the reaction conditions were optimized with a view to large scale production. Part of this work was devoted to conceiving an analytical procedure especially designed to monitor the steric course of enzymatic reactions.