Coupling-Reagent-Free Synthesis of Dipeptides and Tripeptides Using Amino Acid Ionic Liquids.

A general method for the synthesis of dipeptides has been developed, which does not require any coupling reagents. This method is based on the reaction of readily available HCl salts of amino acid methyl esters with tetrabutylphosphonium amino acid ionic liquids. The isolation procedure of stepwise treatment with AcOH is easy to carry out. The method was extended to the synthesis of tripeptide, tyrosyl-glycyl-glycine, present in IMREG-1, also.