Abstract We found that the esterification of l-glutamic acid by benzyl alcohol is greatly promoted by CuCl 2 even in H 2 O solvent, and the selectivity and yield of γ-benzyl ester of l- glutamic acid achieved 100% and 95.31%. Metal cation coordination to the amino acids via neighboring amino and carbonyl groups increased α position carboxyl acidity which initiates the esterification reaction to selectively take place on γ position carboxyl group. In this ...
