Cyclo(l‐leucyl‐α,β‐dehydro­phenyl­alanine): the first diketopiperazine containing an α,β‐dehydro­phenyl­alanine residue

The title compound (systematic name: 3‐benzyl­idene‐6‐iso­butyl­piperazine‐2,5‐dione), C₁₅H₁₈N₂O₂, an α,β‐dehydro­phenyl­alanine containing diketopiperazine, crystallizes in the space group P1 with two mol­ecules in the asymmetric unit arranged antiparallel to one another. The α,β‐dehydro­phenyl­alanine (ΔPhe) residue in this cyclic peptide retains its planarity but deviates from the standard conformations observed in its linear analogues. Each type of mol­ecule forms a linear chain with mol­ecules of the same type via pairwise N—H?O hydrogen bonds, while weaker C—H?O inter­actions link the chains together to form a three‐dimensional network.