The literature concerning the occurrence of D-amino acids in nature, the resolution of underivatized amino acids, the resolution of glutamic acid, and the resolution of 2-aminobutan-1-ol has been reviewed;The resolution of 2-aminobutan-1-ol with (+)tartaric acid was studied;The resolution of DL-glutamic acid with (-)2-amino-butan-1-ol has been shown to be simple and reproducible;Solubility experiments showed that the diastereomers (-)2-aminobutan-1-ol-D-glutamate and (-)2-aminobutan-1-ol-L-glutamate were about equally soluble in aqueous ethanol individually. The two diastereomers together were much more soluble than would be expected from their individual solubilities. The solubilizing effect of (-)2-aminobutan-1-ol-L-glutamate on the (-)2-aminobutan-1-ol-D-glutamate was greater than the solubilizing effect of (-)-aminobutan-1-ol-D-glutamate on the (-)2-aminobutan-1-ol-L-glutamate;The resolution of 2-aminobuten-1-ol with glutamic acid offered a convenient preparation for (+)2-aminobutan-1-ol, which in turn could be used to resolve DL-glutamic acid to give a good yield of L-glutamic acid;The resolution of 2-aminobutan-1-ol with D-glutamic acid followed the pattern of the resolution with L-glutamic acid;The four optical isomers of 2-aminobutan-1-ol-glutamate were isolated during there resolutions; two of the isomers were characterized.