Kinetics and Mechanism of Decarboxylation of α-Amino Acids by Ninhydrin

Department of Chemistry, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh-202 002
Manuscript received 17 January 1990, revised 29 June 1990, accepted 21 November 1990

The kinetic study of decarboxylation of \(\)\(\propto\)-amino acids has been carried out at various concentrations of ninhydrin at different temperatures (50-80°) and hydrogen ion concentration from 1.0 x 10^-3 to 1.0 x 10^-6 mol dm^-3 . The reaction follows an irreversible pseudo first order reaction in presence of excess ninhydrin. The rate of the reaction increases with increase in pH and temperature. On the basis of the observed data a possible mechanism has been proposed