Salicylamide hemisuccinate ethyl ester, salicylamide hemiglutarate methyl ester, O-acetyl-N-methylsalicylamide, and O-acetyl-N, N-diethylsalicylamide were synthesized, and the kinetics and mechanisms of their decompositions in aqueous buffers at various pH values were studied. The results support a mechanism in which the predominant feature is a transacylation reaction involving intramolecular attack of the amide anion on the carbonyl carbon of the neighboring ester group. In the case of O-acetyl-N-methyl salicylamide and O-acetyl-N,N-diethylsalicylamide, where the ionization of the amide group is blocked, the predominant reaction was found to be hydrolysis of the ester groups rather than O-to-N-acyl transfer. The reaction rates for the glutarate hemiester were found to be faster than those for the corresponding ethyl ester at pH values around 7.0. These results confirm a previously proposed mechanism in which a second intramolecular general acid catalysis involving the free carboxyl group on the hemiester moiety accelerates the transacylation rate. © 1990.