Abstract
When wool is treated in alkaline solutions of sodium thiosulfate, cystine is degraded and at the same time lanthionine is formed. The cleavage of cystine is shown to be partly due to the S-nucleophilic attack of the disulfide bond by the thiosulfate anion, and partly to the effect of the high alkalinity of the solution. The formation of lanthionine is assumed to take place by means of a bimolecular displacement side reaction between the decomposition products of cystine formed by the nucleophile, namely cysteine and cysteinethiosulfonic acid.

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