Amino acid derivatives have to be sufficiently shelf-stable and preferably crystalline to be marketed.
In most cases, lack of crystallinity is the reason for converting amino acid derivatives into DCHA, DEA, or CHA salts. N-protected Amino acid derivatives carrying very acid-labile protecting are offered as salts as to avoid premature cleavage during storage (e.g. Bpoc-Gly-OH • DCHA). For a protocol describing the liberation of the acid please see the Technical Note downloadable from our homepage.
Esters of amino acids have to be converted into salts of strong acids as to prevent oligomerization (e.g. H-Ala-OMe • HCl) and increase shelf-stability.