Abstract: Amino acids serve as fundamental constituents of proteins, whose chiral enantiomers exhibit distinct pharmacological activities despite sharing analogous physical properties. This biological significance necessitates precise chiral separation methodologies in pharmaceutical and life science research. The present experiment employs ethyl chloroformate (ECF) as a derivatization reagent to develop an instructional module for graduate-level analytical chemistry education. Our pedagogical design incorporates amino acid derivatization techniques coupled with chiral gas chromatographic separation into the Comprehensive Instrumental Analysis Laboratory curriculum. Through systematic training encompassing sample pretreatment, qualitative identification, quantitative determination, and data interpretation, this experimental protocol enables students to master the complete gas chromatographic analytical workflow. The exercise emphasizes operational standardization while encouraging exploratory analyses, thereby enhancing graduate students’ experimental proficiency in advanced analytical methodologies.

Key words: Amino acids, Chiral gas chromatography, Ethyl chloroformate, Derivatization