49 



form as a colorless anhydride. If one-tenth part of a saturated watery 

 solution is added to a watery rhodamin solution then, on subse- 

 quent freezing and illumination the rhodamin will not go into the 

 triplet and show its usual brilliant orange fluorescence. That this 

 change is not due to a simple direct disturbance of the water by 

 the chloroform is shown by the fact that a saturation with ether 

 has no such effect although ether is considerably more soluble in 

 water than chloroform. Ether has no affinity for rhodamin but 

 will readily abolish its long-life phosphorescence if Yoo part of a 

 saturated watery solution is added to the acridine orange — corti- 

 sone system. 



ASCORBIC ACID 



We know that ascorbic acid is indispensable for life but do not 

 know why, what is the role it fulfills. If allowed to autooxidize it 

 turns into a yellow dye, probably dehydrogulonic acid (see Schiff- 

 man, McLaughlin, and the author). Bivalent metals form deeply 

 colored complexes with this oxide. 



As has been shown before, as far as experience goes, all 

 fluorescent substances in frozen water go into the triplet state. 

 This seems to hold also for this oxidation product of ascorbic acid. 

 If a methanol solution of ascorbic acid is neutralized with BaOH 

 and stored, then in the presence of air a yellow precipitate is 

 formed which is the Ba salt of the oxide. If this is dissolved in 

 water it shows no fluorescence in the visible. Frozen, it shows a 

 strong blue phosphorescence with a long lifetime. The oxide of 

 ascorbic acid is able to attach itself firmly to proteins without los- 

 ing its optical reactivity. It seems not impossible that it forms such 

 complexes with protoplasmic proteins also in vivo, serving as pros- 

 thetic group for the proteins. This assumption finds support in the 

 fact that the two organs which are the richest in ascorbic acid, the 

 adrenal medulla and lymph glands, both contain yellow pigments. 

 When the author worked two decades ago along this line, he had 

 the impression that these pigments could not be separated f« 



