dl-Alaninium oxalate

In the title compound, C₃H₈NO₂⁺·C₂HO₄⁻, the alanine mol­ecule exists in the protonated cationic form and the oxalic acid mol­ecule in the mono-ionized state. The alanine mol­ecules dimerize across inversion centres through head-to-tail N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds. The semi-oxalate ions aggregate into hydrogen-bonded strings along the shortest cell axis. The crystal structure is also characterized by the presence of a C—H⋯O hydrogen bond and a short C⋯O contact between amino acids.