1-Carboxy-methyl-2-ethyl-4-methyl-1H-imidazol-3-ium chloride monohydrate.

In the title compound, C(8)H(13)N(2)O(2) (+)·Cl(-)·H(2)O, the methyl C atom of the ethyl group is slightly out of the imidazole plane, with an N-C(ring)-C-C torsion angle of -15.1 (2)°. In the crystal structure, there are strong inter-molecular hydrogen-bonding inter-actions between the solvent water mol-ecule, the free chloride anion and the organic cation, resulting in a two-dimensional supra-molecular network in the ab plane.