A facile, scalable synthesis of α-methyl cysteine with three alternate thiol protecting groups (trityl, allyl and tert-butyl) is described. The thiol-protected amino acids are obtained in six steps from l-cysteine ethyl ester and are ideally suited for a range of natural product and solid-phase peptide synthesis applications.
Key words
natural products - α-methyl cysteine - solid-phase peptide synthesis - camphorsultam auxiliary - P2-Et