BigPatents India

A process for the preparation of an optically active alky1 4-pheny1-2-[trifluoroacety1) amino] butanoate by reacting 4-oxo-4-pheny1-2-(trifluoroacety1) amino butanoic acid with an alcohol selected from methanol or ethanol in presence of an acid catalyst at temperature in the range of 0 to 60oC for a period of 5 to 45 min, concentrating the reaction mixture to get compound, dissolving this ketoester in an organic solvent and hydrogenating in presence of catalyst selected from 5 to 10% palladium on charcoal at temperature in the range of 20 to 70oC at a pressure in the range of 1-10 atm for a period ranging from 8 to 36 hr, filtering, concentrating and purifying the crude product by conventional methods such as chromatography to obtain optically active alky1 4-phenyl-2-[trifluoroacetyl) amino] butanoate.