As part of a program dealing with the preparation of amino acid antimetabolites to be tested for potential effect against experimental tumors, the synthesis of certain a-aminoketone derivatives of the general structure RCOCHzNHR'appeared of interest. Some compounds of this type, such as 6-aminolevulinic acidj3 have been shown to be involved in biochemical pathways, while others have been employed in the synthesis of antibiotic^.^ In a search ...