 Racemic alanine can be prepared by the condensation of acetaldehyde with ammonium chloride in the presence of sodium cyanide by the Strecker reaction, or by the ammonolysis of 2-bromopropanoic acid.Alanine is broken down by oxidative deamination, the inverse reaction of the reductive amination reaction described above, catalyzed by the same enzymes.The direction of the process is largely controlled by the relative concentration of the substrates and products of the reactions involved.