γ-aminobutyric acid is a compound, alias 4-aminobutyric acid, or GABA for short. The chemical form is C₄H₉NO₂. γ-aminobutyric acid is also an amino acid that occurs widely in vertebrates, plants, and microorganisms. As an important CNS inhibitory neurotransmitter, γ-aminobutyric acid has good water solubility and thermal stability. It has been confirmed that γ-aminobutyric acid is a small molecular weight non-protein amino acid, which can be used in the production of beverages and other products.
The chemical synthesis of γ-aminobutyric acid mainly has the following kinds:
① With potassium phthalimide and γ-chloroprene or butyrolactone as raw materials, after intense reaction and hydrolysis of γ-aminobutyric acid;
② With pyrrolidone as the starting material, hydrolyzed with calcium hydroxide and ammonium bicarbonate, γ-aminobutyric acid can be obtained after ring opening;
③ γ-aminobutyric acid was obtained by photoreaction with butyric acid and ammonia as raw materials under γ-ray conditions;
④ γ-aminobutyric acid was synthesized from acrylamide and formic acid by glow discharge method.
⑤Using ethylene and methyl bromoacetate as raw materials, 4-methyl bromobutyrate was obtained by the polymerization reaction, and then the product γ-aminobutyrate was obtained by ammonolysis and hydrolysis.
