Zn-Al hydrotalcite (HT) and Na-montmorillonite (Na-mont) were pillared by the deprotonated and the protonated forms of L-tyrosine, respectively. Pillaring was successful as the increased basal spacings due to intercalation attest. L-Tyr-HT proved to be thermally less stabile than HT, while that of L-Tyr-mont did not change compared to Na-mont. DTG curves showed more mass loss steps for the hosts than for the intercalated compounds. The extra steps belonged to the decomposition of the amino acid derivatives. FT-IR spectra of the samples pretreated in vacuum in the 293-773 K temperature range also showed that intercalation was successful and L-Tyr-HT is more temperature sensitive than L-Tyr-mont.