A. N-(Benzyloxycarbonyl)-L-serine β-lactone.^{2 3} A 2-L, three-necked, round-bottomed flask is equipped with a magnetic stirring bar, an argon inlet adaptor, a low temperature thermometer, and a rubber septum (Note 1). The flask is charged with tetrahydrofuran (1.1 L) and triphenylphosphine (42.1 g, 160 mmol, (Note 2)). The triphenylphosphine is dissolved with stirring and the flask is then cooled to −78°C with a dry ice-acetone bath (Note 3). Distilled dimethyl azodicarboxylate (17.7 mL, 160 mmol, d = 1.33 g/mL at 25°C) is added dropwise with a syringe over 10 min (Caution, (Note 4)). The resulting pale yellow solution is stirred at −75° to −78°C for 10 min, at which point a milky white slurry is obtained. The rubber septum on the flask is quickly replaced with a 1-L, pressure-equalizing dropping funnel containing a solution of N-(benzyloxycarbonyl)-L-serine (38.3 g, 160 mmol) in tetrahydrofuran (240 mL), (Note 2), (Note 5) which is added dropwise to the mixture over 30 min. After completion of the addition, the mixture is stirred at −75° to −77°C for 20 min, the cooling bath is removed, and the mixture is slowly warmed with stirring to room temperature over 2.5 hr (Note 6). The solvent is removed on a rotary evaporator at 35°C. The residual pale yellow syrup is dried briefly (15 min) under high vacuum (~0.2 mm) and suspended in hexane/ethyl acetate (4/1, 20 mL). Ethyl acetate (30 mL) is added to give a solution which is applied to a 10 × 23-cm column of flash silica gel⁴ (800 g) packed in hexane/ethyl acetate (4/1). The flask and the sides of the column are rinsed with additional ethyl acetate (20 mL), and this is added to the column which is then eluted with hexane/ethyl acetate (4/1, 2.6 L). The solvent is changed to hexane/ethyl acetate (3/2) and 500-mL fractions are collected. Concentration of fractions 6–10 on a rotary evaporator gives 15.5 g (44%) of analytically pure N-(benzyloxycarbonyl)-L-serine β-lactone (Note 7). Fractions 11–14 contain slightly impure β-lactone. The solid obtained from concentration of these fractions on a rotary evaporator is dissolved in dichloromethane (50 mL) and precipitated by addition of hexane (50 mL) followed by cooling to −20°C (0.5 hr). The process is repeated twice to afford additional β-lactone (1.25 g). The total yield is 16.8 g (47%) (Note 8).

B. N^α-(Benzyloxycarbonyl)-β-(pyrazol-1-yl)-L-alanine.^{2,3,5 6 7} A 500-mL, single-necked, round-bottomed flask is equipped with a magnetic stirring bar, a rubber septum and an argon inlet (Note 1). The flask is charged with N-(benzyloxycarbonyl)-L-serine β-lactone (15 g, 68 mmol) and anhydrous acetonitrile (240 mL, (Note 2)). The cloudy mixture is stirred and solid pyrazole (4.9 g, 72 mmol) (Note 9) is added. The rubber septum is quickly replaced with a reflux condenser and an argon inlet adaptor, and the reaction mixture is heated in an oil bath at 52–54°C for 24 hr. The solvent is removed on a rotary evaporator to leave a white solid that is dried under vacuum for 30 min. Sodium hydroxide (1 N, 69 mL) is added, the suspension is diluted with distilled water (350 mL) and the mixture is stirred vigorously for 5 min. It is then extracted with dichloromethane (3 × 100 mL) to remove unreacted pyrazole and side products. The aqueous phase is cooled in an ice bath to ca. 4°C, and concentrated hydrochloric acid is added with stirring to bring the pH to 1 (about 10 mL required). The resulting precipitate is filtered, washed with water (ca. 75 mL), air dried, and then completely dried in a desiccator over phosphorus oxide (P₂O₅) at 0.2 mm for 12 hr. This material is recrystallized from ethyl acetate (350 mL) to give 7.3 g of pure product (37% yield). Concentration of the mother liquor on a rotary evaporator and recrystallization from the minimum volume of ethyl acetate gives an additional 1.1 g of analytically pure N^α-(benzyloxycarbonyl)-β-(pyrazol-1-yl)-L-alanine. The total yield is 8.4 g (43%) (Note 10).