OPT. ACTI \ ., HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT 69 



cam]ilioro-cai'boiiic acid into caini)lior aiul carbonic acid 

 under the inHiience of catalysts (optically active alka- 

 loids), have established that laevorotatory quinine cata- 

 lyses a more rapid decomposition of the left camphoro- 

 carbonic acid, while dextrorotatory quinidine causes a 

 more rapid decomposition of the right camphoro-car- 

 bonic acid. 



TABLE 14 



Sign of the Optical Rotation of the Component which is more Rap- 



inLY HYPitni.YSED IX A Race:\iic Ether rxDER the Action of 



Esterases of Different Origin 



(CF. Rona and Ammon, 1933) 



Initial i-acemic substrate 



Esterase from 

 Pig's Pancreas 



Esterase from 

 Pig's Liver 



Mandelic acid — methyl ether 

 " " ethyl ether 



" " monoglyceride 



Phenylmethoxyacetic acid — methyl ether 

 Phenylchloroacetic acid — methyl ether 

 Phenylaminoacetic acid — propyl ether 

 Tropic acid — methyl ether 



(-) 

 (-) 

 (-) 

 (-) 

 (-) 

 ( + ) 

 ( + ) 



( + ) 

 ( + ) 

 ( + ) 

 ( + ) 

 (-) 

 ( + ) 

 (-) 



A similar condition has been observed in the synthesis 

 of optically active substances from structurally inactive 

 material. Bredig- and his collaborators, in their study of 

 the synthesis of nitrites from hydrocyanic acid and dif- 

 ferent aldehydes with the aid of optically inverse cata- 

 lysts of known chemical constitution, have obtained the 

 results reported in Table 15. 



So the optically inverse catalysts, quinine and quini- 

 dine, bring about the synthesis of optical antipodes of the 

 nitrite of mandelic acid from initial structurally inactive 

 material. Quinine behaves in this respect analogous to 

 emulsin, while quinidine has the properties of the anti- 

 pode of emulsin. If the optically active catalyst, there- 

 fore, is of a given pign, it affects in a definite direction 

 the products of the catalyzed reaction. 



''/. I^ r () d u c t i o n of a G i v e n p t i c a 1 

 Isomer by a Chemical Alteration of 

 the Catalyst. In the cases studied in the preced- 



