ASYAEMETRICA-FUNICULOSA 457 



upon almost any type of plant residue in the later stages of decomposition. 

 Other members of the series, likewise regarded as primarily of soil origm, 

 are apparently less abundantly distributed in nature. In no known case 

 has a member of the series been isolated from a substrate that might be 

 regarded as either specific or restrictive. 



Birkinshaw and Raistrick (1936b) reported the production of a hitherto 

 undescribed product of mold metabolism, terrestric acid, C11H14O4, by 

 three strains of PenicilUum terrestre. The product is a colorless, crystalline 

 acid showing many resemblances to the substituted tetronic acids earlier 

 obtained from P. charlesii Smith by Clutterbuck, et al. (1934). It was 

 shown to be an ethyl derivative of one of them, namely, carolic acid (see 



p. 252). 



Atkinson (1942, 1943) reported the production of an antibiotic substance, 

 designated "penicidin", from a mold which was subsequently submitted 

 to us for identification and found to approximate PenicilUum terrestre. 

 In the following year, Atkinson, et. al, (1944a) described a procedure for 

 the purification and crystallization of penicidin; and in another paper 

 (1944b) considered the antibacterial activity of additional molds belonging 

 to the genera PeniciUium and Aspergillus. Penicidin is now generally 

 considered to represent the same substance as that to which other names, 

 including claviformin, clavacin, and patulin, have been apphed (see p. 

 537). 



PenicilUum solitum Westlmg was found to be a harmful organism in the 

 leather industry by van Beyma (1936). 



The production of oxalic acid by PenicilUum solitum at different pH 

 levels w^as studied by Jacquot (1938), the optimum being pH 7.5 to 7.8. 

 Disaccharides, hexoses, and pentoses were successfully used as carbon 

 sources. 



Birkinshaw, Raistrick, and Smith (1942) reported PenicilUum resticulo- 

 sum, when grown on Czapek-Dox 5 percent glucose solution, to produce 

 considerable quantities of the hitherto undescribed fumaryl-(/Z-alanine 

 (fumaromono-ci^alanide) C7H9O5N, m.p. 229° (decomp.), titrating as a 

 dibasic acid. The product was synthesized from fumarj'l chloride and 

 c/^alanine and may be regarded as a simple peptide of fumaric acid and 

 rfZ-alanine, into which constituents it is resolved upon acid hydrolj'sis. 

 Metabolism solutions of P. resticulosum show considerable antibacterial 

 activity. The antibacterial substance was isolated in crude foim. Fu- 

 mayrl-dZ-alanine did not appear, however, to form an integral part of the 

 molecule of the antibacterial substance. Coulthard, et al. (1945) reported 

 the production of an antibiotic by P. resticulosum which thej^ believed to 

 approximate notatin, a product of P. notaium (see p. 376). 



No biochemical or physiological studies are known to have been con- 

 ducted on PenicilUum psittacinum Thorn. 



