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

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    f XLIII.—Experiments on the Formation of 4(or 5)- /3-Aniinoethylglyoxaline from Histidine. By Arthur James Ewins and Frank Lee Pyman. 4(or 5)-/3-Aminoeth\’lglyoxaline, 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, Tran3., 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 Vogt (Ber1907, 40, 3691) from j8-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 ite results. The object