A continued interest in Peptide Chemistry prompted the revision of the first edition of this book. This provided an opportunity to update several details. I am grateful to colleagues who were kind enough to inform me of errors, typographical and other, they had discovered in the first edi tion. These have now been corrected, as were certain shortcomings in language and style pointed out by my daughter, Dr. Eva Bodanszky. In 1991 the excellent The Chemical Synthesis of Peptides by John Jones (Oxford University Press, 1991) appeared. It covers, in part, the same field, but is different enough...

During the years 1980-81, as guests of the Deutsches Wollforschungsinstitut in Aachen, Germany, we were working on a small book entitled, "Principles of Peptide Synthesis." In the library of the Institute we noted that the volumes of Houben-Weyl's Handbuch der Organischen Chemie dealing with peptide synthesis were so much in use that they were ready to fall apart because the researchers of the Institute consulted them with amazing regularity. They were looking for references, but even more for experimental details which could be adapted to the particular problem they happened to face. In...

Principles of Peptide Synthesis is a very successful book by one of the pioneers of contemporary bioorganic synthesis. Its first edition proved a valuable source that is kept close to the work bench for frequent consulting. Any researcher planning the formation of the peptide bond, be it for the synthesis of a peptide chain or a cyclic peptide, benefits from the author's experience. The concise and critical treatment of the steps involved: protection, activation and bond formation require careful planning to avoid racemization and undesired side reactions. The second edition has been...

Almost two centuries ago proteins were recognized as the primary materials (proteios = primary) oflife, but the significance and wide role of peptides (from pepsis = digestion) in practically all life pro cesses has only become apparent in the last few decades. Biologi cally active peptides are now being discovered at rapid intervals in the brain and in other organs including the heart, in the skin of amphibians and many other tissues. Peptides and peptide-like compounds are found among toxins and antibiotics. It is unlikely that this process, an almost explosive broadening of the field, will...