OPTICAL ACTIVITY OF BIOL. MATEBIAL 



29 



spread ; it was found, for example, in the leaves of Adonis 

 verualis (Eken-stein and Blanksma, 1908), entering in the 

 composition of their glucosides. The right arabinose was 

 found in the gincoside from Barbados, the so-called barba- 

 loine (Leger, 1910). 



Similar findings were recorded in alkaloids. The laevo- 

 rotatory alkaloid sparteine, for instance, is widely spread 

 in plants ; it was repeatedly isolated from Spartium sco- 

 pariiim and Liipinus liiteus. Recently Orechoff, Eabino- 

 witch and Konowalowa (1933) discovered the dextrorota- 

 tory isomer of sparteine in SopJiora pachycarpa, a plant 

 from Middle Asia. 



Blockmann and Roth (1935) reported to have isolated 

 and obtained in a chemically pure state laevorotatory alca- 

 nine, a red dye found in the roots of Alkanna tinctoria, a 

 South-European species ; the dextrorotatory isomer of the 

 same substance was obtained from the roots of the Japa- 

 nese plant, Lithospermum erytlirorhizon. 



The terpenes were recorded often as dextrorotatory in 

 one species and laevorotatory in another (Oudin, 1932; 

 Branke and Parishev, 1937). We tabulated below (Tables 

 5 and 6) some data on the distribution of the optical 

 isomers of the two most important terpenes, borneol and 

 limonene. 



It is clear, then, that in secondary substances, both opti- 

 cal isomers participate in the composition of living sys- 



TABLE 5 



The Distribution of the Optical Isomers of Borneol in 

 Different Plants (Bartelt, 1910) 



