A water-soluble agent for the t-butoxycarbonylation of amines

4-Dimethylamino-1-t-butoxycarbonylpyridinium chloride is a stable compound which reacts with amino-acid sodium salts in aqueous solution: at 25 °C the reaction is very fast and BOC = amino-acids (BOC = t-butoxycarbonyl) are isolated in good yields by solvent extraction.