Chemical conversions of aromatic amides during electrolytic desalting

1. 1. When hippuric acid or its ring-substituted derivatives are subjected to “electrolytic desalting” in the flowing electrode apparatus familiar in clinical chemistry laboratories, fission to give free glycine occurs, with the benzyl analogue as byproduct. 2. 2. Similar fission occurs with many other aromatic amines, aroyl amino acids and aromatic sulphonamides, but only when the amido group is in conjugation with the aromatic system. 3. 3. The process is not hydrolytic. A mechanism involving the carbinolamine intermediate accounts for all the known products. 4. 4. Care is required when interpreting the results from amino acid chromatography of urines which have been electrolytically desalted, but the amide cleavage can be turned to advantage for identifying amino acid conjugates and derivatives.