Trace amounts of glycine, serine, and alanine were detected in the car
bonate component of the martian meteorite ALH84001 by high-performance
liquid chromatography. The detected amino acids were not uniformly di
stributed in the carbonate component and ranged in concentration from
0.1 to 7 parts per million. Although the detected alanine consists pri
marily of the L enantiomer, low concentrations (<0.1 parts per million
) of endogenous D-alanine may be present in the ALH84001 carbonates. T
he amino acids present in this sample of ALH84001 appear to be terrest
rial in origin and similar to those in Allan Hills ice, although the p
ossibility cannot be ruled out that minute amounts of some amino acids
such as D-alanine are preserved in the meteorite.