Experiments on the formation of 4(or 5)-L-aminoethylglyoxaline from histidine / by Arthur James Ewins and Frank Lee Pyman.

  • Ewins, Arthur James.
Date:
[1911?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Experiments on the formation of 4(or 5)-L-aminoethylglyoxaline from histidine / by Arthur James Ewins and Frank Lee Pyman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    XLIII.—Experiments on the Formcitio7i of 4(or 5)- /3-Aminoethylglyoxaline from Histidine. By Arthur James Ewins and Frank Lee Pyman. 4(or 5)-/3-Aminoethylglyoxaline, the base derived from the naturally occurring amino-acid histidine (a-amino-/3-glyoxaline- 4(or 5)-propionic acid) by the removal of carbon dioxide from the latter has recently become of considerable interest and importance on account of its occurrence in extracts of ergot (Barger and Dale, Trans., 1910, 97, 2592) and very great physiological activity (Dale and Laidlaw, J. Physiol., 1910, 41, 318). It has hitherto been obtained by two methods: (1) by synthesis; (2) by the action of putrefactive organisms on histidine itself. The base was first synthesised by Windaus and Yogt (Ber., 1907, 40, 3691) from /3-glyoxaline-4(or 5)-propionic acid by Curtius’s method. More recently, Ackermann (Zeitsch. physiol. Ghem., 1910, 65, 504) has succeeded in obtaining a relatively large yield of the base by the putrefaction of histidine. Neither method is very satisfactory, since the first is somewhat complex and expensive, while the yields are by no means good. The second method is wholly uncertain in its results. The object