A new approach to the synthesis of 14C labelled DL‐malic acid

Abstract The 2‐carbon units, glycine and glyoxylate are combined by a mild reaction via the copper chelate of glycine. The resulting β‐hydroxy aspartic acid is converted to DL‐malic acid by means of hydroxylamine 0‐sulfonic acid. The overall yields are in the range of 35–50% in submillimolar preparations.