Method of synthesising amino acid by metathesis, hydrolysis, then hydrogenation

A process for synthesizing an amino acid from an unsaturated fatty compound I of formula:

• R1—CH═CH—[(CH2)q—CH═CH]p—(CH2)n—R2 in which:
• R1 is H, an alkyl radical of 1 to 11 carbon atoms, optionally comprising a hydroxyl function, or (CH2)m—R4
• m is an integer in the range from 0 to 11,
• n is an integer in the range from 2 to 13,
• p is an integer, p being equal to 0, 1 or 2,
• q is an integer equal to 0 or 1,
• R2 is COOR5 or CN,
• R4 is H or R2
• R5 is an alkyl radical of 1 to 11 carbon atoms or a radical comprising two or three carbon atoms bearing one or two hydroxyl functions, or alternatively a diglyceride or a triglyceride residue in which each fatty acid of said glyceride residue is either saturated or unsaturated,
• wherein the process comprises at least the following steps:
• cross metathesis with a unsaturated compound II, the unsaturated compound II having a main chain comprising less than 8 carbons, one of the compounds I or II comprising a nitrile function and the other of these compounds II or I an ester function, so as to obtain and recover at least one monounsaturated nitrile ester UNE;
• hydrolysis of the UNE into an unsaturated acid nitrile UAN;
• hydrogenation of the UAN into a saturated AA;
• and
• optional purification of the AA.