Equilibrium structures of the Arg-aldehyde moiety upon HPLC of peptides

Summary

High-performance liquid chromatographic and¹³C n.m.r. spectrometry methods were used for the investigation of peptides containing arginine-aldehyde moiety. Investigation of a model compound, N-benzoyl-Arg-H, showed that in an acidic mobile phase peptides containing the arginine-aldehyde group elute in three characteristic peaks. The components of the peaks were found to be constituents of an equilibrium mixture. The structures of the two components were identified, one as the aldehyde hydrate, the other as the cyclanol derivative. The reactivity of TRIS (HCl) buffer at pH 8.5 with the arginine aldehyde moiety was used for the assignment of the equilibrium structures.