Determining enantiomeric composition of disparlure.

A method has been developed to convert disparlure (2-methyl-7,8-epoxyoctadecane) to the correspondingN-(α-methylbenzyl)aziridine with inversion of configuration at both the 7 and 8 positions. The diastereomeric aziridines can be separated on an efficient gas chromatography column, permitting determination of the enantiomeric constitution of the starting disparlure. As little as ca. 0.1% of the minor enantiomer can be detected.