Preparation and Biological Activity of Adrenoerythrin (? Adrenalinquinone)

Abstract

IN the course of experiments carried out to study the inversion mechanism of adrenalin action on the uterus, I found, in 1945¹, that when this hormone became oxidized (auto-oxidation in water made alkaline with sodium hydroxide) a red substance occasionally appeared, which preserved intact the hypertensive action of adrenalin and, therefore, could not be the adrenochrome obtained by Green and Bichter in 1936. More recently, I have again had occasion to verify the existence of this substance, which I have called ‘adrenoerythrin’, and a paper is now in course of publication which confirms my previous findings². Previously, I have not been able to obtain this substance systematically because of the large number of factors which influence the auto-oxidation of adrenalin. The object of the present communication is to describe a method by which it is possible to obtain the substance in question regularly, and to set forth some of its properties.