The reaction of a cis â folded organocobalt derivative with a salen-type ligand, 1, isolated as racemic compound of ¢ and ¤ enantiomers, with enantiomerically pure R-L amino acids is reported. The reaction between racemic 1 and L-tyrosine afforded a mixture of the two diastereoisomers ¢-2 and ¤-2, which could be separated by fractional crystallization owing to the lower solubility of ¢-2. The absolute configuration of the two diastereomers was unequivocally assigned from the X-ray structure, using the known absolute configuration of the asymmetric carbon of the amino acid as internal reference. The reaction of racemic 1 with trans-4-hydroxy-L-proline afforded only the diastereoisomer with a ¢ configuration of the tetradentate ligand, as proved by X-ray diffractometric analysis.