Abstract
IN continuation of their survey of the anthocyanins, Prof, and Mrs. Robert Robinson, in a paper recently published in the Biochemical Journal, have established the presence of a new class of colourless generators of anthocyanidins, which were first noted by Rosenheim and have been worked on to some extent by Jonesco. Such compounds are apparently quite widely distributed in plants: they require boiling with 10 per cent hydrochloric acid for a minute or so before they are converted into coloured anthocyanidin. Prof, and Mrs. Robinson are the first to recognise that the change is one of dehydration and not of oxidation, and to this extent the name leuco-anthocyanin suggested for the class is unfortunate. They assume that carbons 3 and 4 in the middle ring of the complex three-ring anthocyanidin formula both carry hydroxyl groups and that on dehydration there is loss of hydroxyl at 4 and hydrogen at 3. It is early yet to speculate on the significance of these compounds, which may be precursors of the anthocyanidins proper: their structure fits in with the theory that such compounds are derived from two and a half molecules of sugar. It is further of interest that many of the leueo-anthocyanins listed are obtained from bark and wood. The new discovery shows that even the identification and the synthesis of the natural anthocyanins have not terminated the potentialities of this interesting field of inquiry.
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Colourless Generators of Anthocyanins. Nature 132, 22 (1933). https://doi.org/10.1038/132022c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/132022c0