Model Syntheses of Oligo- and Polypeptides
摘要
First experiments dealing with polycondensations of prAAs or their alkyl esters were performed before world war I and were not related to the hypothesis of CE. For comparison with later experiments (sd. Table 6.1), the work of Balbiano (1900, 1901) and Curtius and Benrath (1904) should be mentioned. Those authors heated prAAs to temperatures above 100 °C hoping that condensation reactions with elimination and evaporation of water occur. However, in those and later studies of Katchalski (1951) and Meggy (1954), the authors observed that heating of dry prAAs results mainly in decomposition and not in polycondensation. Therefore, glycerol was added as reaction medium for glycine and then formation of oligoglycines was detected. In similar experiments, Fox et al. found (Fox and Middlebrook 1954; Fox et al. 1957) that in addition to oligopeptides, cyclic dimers (2.5-diketopiperazines) were formed.