Alkaline hydrolysis (pH 10.5) of the three 7-(oxyiminoacyl)cephalosporins la+ (cefuroxime, ceftazidime, and ceftriaxone) was studied at 37O using HPLC and 'H-NMR techniques. The 7-epicephalosporin 2, the 3-methylidene compound 3, and the 6-epimer 4 of the 3-methylidene compound 3 were identified for each cephalosporin as the major degradation products under the conditions used; ceftazidime (lb) yielded also the d2-isomer 5b (Scheme I ) . A kinetic scheme was developed to account for the production of these compounds, and the different kinetic constants involved in the process were calculated. The experimental results show that the presence of a pyridinio group at position C-C(3) favours the appearance of the A*-isomer, which was detected mainly in cephalosporins bearing an ester function at C(4). The presence of an oxyimino group at C-CONH-C(7) facilitates epimerization at C(7) (+ 2), whereas that of an electron-withdrawing group at C-C(3) results in a increased formation constant for the 3-methylidene compound 3. The 3-methylidene compounds 3a-c produced by the three cephalosporins on cleavage of the p-lactam ring all underwent epimerization at C(6) to yield the corresponding 6-epimer 4.1. introduction. -The first cephalosporin, cephalosporin C, was isolated over 40 years ago by Abraham and Newton from a Cephalosporium acremoniurn culture from Sardinia [l]. By introducing appropriate substituents at position 7 of the original compound, a number of substances -the first of which was cephalothin-were obtained that improved on the antibacterial potency of the parent compound. However, the new cephalosporins were scarcely resistant to p-lactamases which are enzymes produced by bacteria that hydrolyse the p-lactam ring. This problem was solved in two ways, viz. by isolating cephamycins (cephalosporins with an tl -oriented M e 0 group at C(7)) and by synthesizing 7-(oxyiminoacyl)cephalosporins. Both groups of substances are highly resistant to most p-lactamases [2].The alkaline hydrolysis of cephalosporins was found to resemble the enzymatic acylation involved in transpeptidation at the bacterial cell wall [3]. Such a similarity has fostered studies on the reactions of the P-lactam ring in basic media aimed at determining a potential relationship between the ring cleavage and antibacterial activity [4-131. Many of such studies involved UV spectroscopy, although HPLC and 'H-NMR spectroscopy have proved to be more effective, since the former provides information on the number of hydrolysis products and the latter supplies valuable evidence of their structures.