Synthesis of α-Amino Acids : Strecker synthesis

An elegant procedure, known as the Strecker synthesis, assembles an alpha-amino acid from ammonia (the amine precursor), cyanide (the carboxyl precursor), and an aldehyde. This reaction (shown below) is essentially an imino analog of cyanohydrin formation. The alpha-amino nitrile formed in this way can then be hydrolyzed to an amino acid by either acid or base catalysis.