Enzymatic hydrolysis of asymmetric heterocyclic amino acid derivatives

Summary 2-methyl-oxazolinones and thio-thiazolidones representative of aromatic and aliphatic amino acids were hydrolysed by -chymotrypsin and subtilisin. The parametric ratio k_cat/K_m, correlated with the enantiomeric enrichment of the reaction product, indicates that thio-thiazolidones are converted to free amino acids by enzyme with the higher degree of stereospecificity.