Diethyl a-ketoglutarate

Enantioselective heterogeneous catalytic hydrogenation using a chiral catalyst was pioneered by Aka-bori and Izumi, who prepared a palladium catalyst supported on silk fibroin. The oxime acetates of diethyl a-ketoglutarate or of ethyl phenylpyruvate were hydrogenated to form glutamic acid (7-15% ee) and phenylalanine (30% Similarly, a palladium-poly-L-leucine catalyst was used for the asym-... 

Diethyl-a-ketoglutarate is reduced up to pH 7 in the pre-protonated form. Hydrolysis prevented studies at pH < 2 and pH > 7. 

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