Sodium phenylpyruvate is a substrate for phenylpyruvate decarboxylase and phenylpyruvate tautomerase.It inhibits amino acid formation and depresses oxygen consumption.
The salt should have no OH broad bands in the IR at ~3000cm-1. If these are present, then they are due either to water contamination or to the presence of free acid. For the first case dry the solid thoroughly in a vacuum over P2O5, and in the latter case wash the salt well with Et2O in vacuo till free of acid. Alternatively add a slight excess of the free acid (cf p 332) in EtOH to ethanolic NaOH, evaporate to dryness and extract excess acid from the salt with dry Et2O. [Beilstein 10 I 325.]