A chiral derivatization strategy with phenylglycine methyl ester (PGME) was employed to develop a straightforward method to determine the absolute configurations of N,N-dimethyl amino acids. The PGME derivatives were analyzed using liquid chromatog-raphy-mass spectrometry to identify the absolute configurations of various N,N-dimethyl amino acids based on their elution time and order. The established method was applied to assign the absolute configuration of the N,N-dimethyl phenylalanine in sanjoi-nine A (4), a cyclopeptide alkaloid isolated from Zizyphi Spinosi Semen widely used as herbal medicine for insomnia. Sanjoinine A displayed production of nitric oxide (NO) in LPS-activated RAW 264.7 cells. © 2023 The Korean Society of Applied Pharmacology.