These N-acyl amino acid surfactants is normally produced by reaction of acid anhydride with sodium l-glutamate hydrolysates under Schotten-Baumann condition i.e., in alkaline aqueous medium. To avoid using fatty acid chlorides, acylations were also carried out with the fatty acids themselves or with their methyl esters, but unfortunately these methods cannot be used in practice, dodecenyl succinic anhydride, was to be studied for their suitability as acylating agents the production if acylated glutamine hydrolysates. The surface activities including surface tension forming power, forming stability and emulsifying power were measured. The experimental results revealed that the products have a good emulsifying power. Thus, there derivatives will be expected to be used an emulsifying agent for O/W type cosmetic emulsion.

A series of long chain N-acyl amino acid type anionic surfactants were prepared by treating fatty acid chlorides with three kinds of amino acids, that is, sodium N-acyl-sarcosinates, sodium N-acyl-N-methyl-β-alaninates and sodium N-acyl-N-methyl-taurates in an alkaline solution. All prepared biodegradable surfactants were purified by thin layer chromatography and column chromatography, and identified their structures by spectral analysis.