SOURCES OF ENERGY l8l 



Earth under the influence of ukraviolet light are on a very 

 limited scale. This is because the short-wave radiations, 

 Avhich are by far the most active, are almost entirely absorbed 

 by the ozone screen. It is, however, appropriate to refer, at 

 this point, to the recently published work of K. Bahadur.^ ^^ 

 This author claims to have succeeded in synthesising various 

 amino acids from paraformaldehyde and potassium nitrate 

 in the presence of iron chloride by allowing these substances 

 to stand in aqueous solution in direct sunlight for 80 hours. 

 The formation of amino acids did not take place in the 

 dark or in the absence of iron chloride. Bahadur claims 

 that in his experiments he observed the synthesis of the 

 following amino acids: arginine, valine, histidine, proline, 

 lysine, serine, aspartic acid, glycine, ornithine and asparagine. 

 According to K. Bahadur and S. Ranganayaki"^ the pro- 

 cess proceeds through the following intermediate reactions : 



2CH2O -I- HaO-^CHgOH + H.COOH 

 CH2O + H.COOH^HOCHo.COOH 

 HOCHa.COOH-^CHO.COOH + 2H 



The nitrate is reduced to ammonia at the expense of the 

 formaldehyde 



CHO.COOH + 2NH3->NH2CHOH.COONH4 

 NH2CHOH.COONH4 -f H.O^NH^CHOH.COOH -f NH^OH 

 NH2CHOH.COOH-^NH : CH.COOH + HoO 



NH : CH.COOH + QH^NHoCH^-COOH (glycine) 



NH : CH.COOH 4- CH20-^CHO.CHNH2.COOH 



CH0.CHNH2.C00H + 2H->CH20H.CHNH2.cooH (serine) 



CH2O -f CH20H.CHNH2.COOH->CHO.CH2.CHNH2.COOH + H2O 

 CHO.CH2.CHNH2.COOH -j- 2H^HOCH2.CH2.CHNH2.COOH 

 CH.O + HOCH2.CH2.CHNH2.COOH-^CHO.CH2.CH2.CHNH2.COOH -f H.O 

 CHO.CH2.CH2.CHNH2.COOH + 2H->HOCH2.CH2.CHo.CHNH2.COOH 



CHo CH2 CH2 CH2 



\ \ 



HC — COOH-> HC — COOK -f H2O 



/ / 



CH2OH H2N CH2 HN 



(proline) 



