A rational chemical synthesis of 4-acetyl-2-(2-carboxyethyl)-5-methylpyrrole (5), the product formed when glutamate-1-semialdehyde (GSA, 2) is reacted with acetylacetone in the first step of the quantitative analysis for GSA in biological media. Rates of reaction of the GSA- pyrrole (5) with Ehrlich's reagent (the second step in GSA quantitation) are compared with the rates of the reactions of well-characterized “ALA-pyrroles”(3) and (4). Pyrrole (5) reacts ...