Abstract
IN his presidential address to the tenth annual general meeting of the Indian Chemical Society held at Bombay, Prof. N. R. Dhar discussed some aspects of the chemistry of photosynthesis (âChemical Aspects of Carbon Assimilationâ, J. Indian Chem. Soc., 11, 145; 1934). Numerous experiments carried on in his laboratory during the past ten years show that formaldehyde is synthesised and detected when dilute solutions (5 per cent) of bicarbonates of the alkali metals are exposed to sunlight for about four hours in thin layers (0â 5 cm. thick) either in open dishes or covered with silica plates at temperatures up to 30 °; higher temperatures are prejudicial to formaldehyde formation. The amount of formaldehyde photosynthesised per 100 c.c. of solution exposed is 0â 00007-0â 0001 gm. Schryver s reagent is most sensitive for the detection of formaldehyde in small quantities. The amount of formaldehyde obtained by exposing the bicarbonate solutions in the same dishes placed in a bath at 40 ° is about one third of that obtained at 30 ° under identical conditions.
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Chemistry of Photosynthesis. Nature 134, 331 (1934). https://doi.org/10.1038/134331a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/134331a0