PROCESS FOR THE PREPARATION OF L-CARNITINE

摘要

The present invention relates to the process for the preparing of L-carnitine expressed by formula (1), which is useful in industrial mass production due to the fact that each reaction in the aqueous solution phase is continuously carried out in a reactor without separate purification process. More particularly, this invention relates to such process, wherein (S)-3-activated hydroxybutyrolactone is utilized as a raw material so as to undergo the following chemical reactions under the specific conditions: a ring-opening reaction, epoxydation at the chiral center which is inversely converted, and nucleophilic substitution of trimethylamine.