Synthesis 



Bacharach in Chemistry and Industry, 1937, 56, 1141. Vitamin 

 Bj is called aneurin by many British and French workers, and 

 thiamin by many Americans. Its structure is much more 

 complicated than that of the indolyl plant growth-substances, 

 to which it has no chemical resemblance. 



In plants, it is present particularly in the embryo of seeds, 

 and it appears to act as a hormone within plants. According to 

 much work by P. R. White and others (summarized in 

 Chronica Botanica, 1939, 5, 166) vitamin B^ is an essential 

 ingredient of media for the culture of excised roots and other 

 parts of dicotyledonous plants^. Its hormonal role in the 

 intact plant does not seem to have been ascertained. Applied 

 externally to cuttings, and possibly to seeds, vitamin Bj 

 behaves as a drug, and, like the synthetic plant growth- 

 substances of the indolyl group, induces or hastens root- 

 formation. It is possible that some of the effects observed 

 from applications of preparations of maize and other seeds to 

 seeds and cuttings — particularly by Russian workers, were due 

 to vitamin B^, and not to auxin as was thought. Vitamin Bj 

 has been found in dung (see p. 68), wherein it is probably 

 formed by micro-organisms. 



The formula of vitamin B^ is : 



H 



C CI 



/ \ '■ 



N C CH, N C-CH3 



il II 



H3C-C C-NH, HC C-CH^.CHeOH 



N HCL S 



vitamin J5, (hydrochloride) 



Vitamin Bj is now synthetized in America, Britain, and 

 Germany by the processes discovered in these respective 

 countries, and is on sale. The German process has been 

 patented. 



^It is not always necessary to add the complete substance, as some 

 organisms can synthetize the substance by condensation of its single- 

 ring constituents, or from an appropriately substituted thiazole alone 

 (Robbins et al., (1937) ). 



115 



