The effect of the constituting amino acid residue [Glu(OBzl)] number on the chiral recognition ability was investigated. Chiral recognition sites were prepared from oligopeptide derivatives (constituting amino acid residue number = three-five) by adopting alternative molecular imprinting. It was made clear that with a constituting amino acid residue number of four, the tetrapeptide derivative of Glu(OBzl) is the best candidate material to generate a chiral recognition site among eight types of oligopeptide derivatives in the study. The affinity constant between Ac-L-Trp and a chiral recognition site ranged from 3.4 X 10(3) to 1.08 X 10(4) mol(-1) dm(3), depending on the number of Glu(OBzl) residues in an oligopeptide derivative. (C) 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.