Abstract This paper describes the synthesis of 5-fluoro-d/l-dopa and the corresponding [18 F] 5-fluoro-l-dopa starting from 5-nitrovanillin via malonic ester synthesis, the Balz- Schiemann reaction and the separation of the racemic mixture [18 F] 5-fluoro-d/l-dopa with a chiral HPLC system. The inactive 5-fluoro-d/l-dopa was obtained in an eight-step synthesis with an overall yield of 10%. For a reliable synthesis, the nitro group was reduced with ...