Folinic Acid - History of Discovery As Citrovorum Factor

History of Discovery As Citrovorum Factor

Folinic acid was discovered as a needed growth factor for the bacterium Leuconostoc citrovorum in 1948, by Sauberlich and Baumann. This so-called "citrovorum factor," which then had an unknown structure, was a derivative of folate that required to be metabolized in the liver before it could support growth of L. citrovorum. The synthesis of citrovorum factor by liver cells in culture was eventually accomplished from pteroylglutamic acid in the presence of suitable concentrations of ascorbic acid. The simultaneous addition of sodium formate to such systems resulted in increased citrovorum factor activity in the cell-free supernatants (producing, as we know now, the 5-formyl derivative), and from this method of preparation of large amounts of the factor, its structure as levo-folinic acid (5-formyl tetrahydrofolic acid) was eventually deduced.

Read more about this topic:  Folinic Acid

Famous quotes containing the words history of, history, discovery and/or factor:

    “The history of all countries shows that the working class exclusively by its own effort is able to develop only trade-union consciousness.”
    —Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (1870–1924)

    “America is, therefore the land of the future, where, in the ages that lie before us, the burden of the World’s history shall reveal itself. It is a land of desire for all those who are weary of the historical lumber-room of Old Europe.”
    —Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)

    “I have known no experience more distressing than the discovery that Negroes didn’t love me. Unutterable loneliness claimed me. I felt without roots, like a man without a country ...”
    —Sarah Patton Boyle, U.S. civil rights activist and author. The Desegregated Heart, part 1, ch. 10 (1962)

    “Children of the middle years do not do their learning unaffected by attendant feelings of interest, boredom, success, failure, chagrin, joy, humiliation, pleasure, distress and delight. They are whole children responding in a total way, and what they feel is a constant factor that can be constructive or destructive in any learning situation.”
    —Dorothy H. Cohen (20th century)