The oxidation of tryptophan to 3-indoleacetaldehyde with sodium hypochlorite was investigated with 14C labelled DL-tryptophan. The reaction was performed under pseudo first order conditions. From the pH dependence of the reaction it was concluded that only the unprotonated tryptophan is converted to the aldehyde. The activation energy is 35 ± 2.2 (SE) kJ x mol-1 as derived from the Arrhenius plot. Variing the pH between 8.5 and 11.0 and the temperature in the range from 298 K to 318 K did not alter the selectivity of the reaction as confirmed by TLC of the product (purity ≧ 90%). A possible reaction mechanism is proposed.