Pyrrole-2-carboxylic acid was synthesized over a century ago, but its history as a compound of biological origin is rather recent. It was first identified as a degradation product of sialic acids, then as a derivative of the oxidation of the D-hydroxyproline isomers by mammalian D-amino acid oxidase. The latter relationship results from the lability of the direct oxidation product, A'-pyrroline-4-hydroxy-2-carboxylic acid, which loses water spontaneously to form the pyrrole. A similar reaction is catalyzed by the more specific allohydroxy-D-proline oxidase of Pseudomonas. In whole animal observations, pyrrole-2-carboxylate (PCA) ' was identified in rat or human urine after administration of the D-isomers of hydroxyproline, a finding ascribable to the action of D-amino acid oxidase. Urinary excretion of N-(pyrrole-2-carboxyl) glycine has been reported in a 5-year-old affected with type II hyperprolinemia; The child has mild developmental delay, recurrent seizures of the grand mal type and EEG alterations. The urinary excretion of the conjugate is stressed, since it appears that only one previous report in the literature described this compound in the urine of two patients affected by this disturbance.