468 Stowe, Stodola, Hayashi, and Brian 



remove neutral and phenolic substances. The bicarbonate solution 

 was then acidified and again extracted with ether. After treating with 

 lead acetate, the ether extract was evaporated, and then the active 

 substance was obtained as a white powder. In 1935 Dr. Yabuta gave 

 it the name of gibberellin on the basis of the scientific name of the 

 fungus, Gibberella fujikuroi (Saw.) A\'ollenw. This was the first use 

 of this term in the literature. Later, in 1938, Dr. Yabuta and Dr. 

 Sumiki reported the isolation of crystalline gibberellin A and B (15). 

 The studies on the chemical structure of gibberellin started at this 

 time. By 1950 we had published 15 papers on the production of gib- 

 berellin and on its chemistry (cf. 10, 13, 14). It was at this time that 

 work outside of Japan began. 



Dr, Stodola: The first work on gibberellin outside of the Orient 

 was done at the Chemical Corps Biological Laboratories at Camp 

 Detrick, Maryland; in March, 1950, Dr. J. E. Mitchell reviewed this 

 work in a talk before the American Phytopathological Society (6). 

 That summer the Korean War started, and then gibberellin took on a 

 military aspect as far as this country was concerned. A large scale 

 production was needed to provide sufficient material for proper test- 

 ing, and because of our experiences at Peoria with industrial fermen- 

 tations, the problem was brought to us in August, 1951. Dr. Raper, 

 the head of our culture collection section, was assigned to carry out 

 the fermentation studies, and I was to work on the isolation and 

 characterization of the gibberellin. 



I was very fortunate at the start to be able to talk over the whole 

 problem with Prof. Sumiki, who is the authority on the production 

 and chemistry of gibberellin, while we were at the International 

 Congress of Pure and Applied Chemistry in New York in early Sep- 

 tember, 1951, where Prof. Sumiki gave a talk on gibberellin. In get- 

 ting started on work of this sort, one needs first cultures of the organ- 

 ism, a suitable medium for growing it, assay procedures for esti- 

 mating the amount that is produced, and pure compounds for use as 

 standards. We had trouble with all of these, as you will see from the 

 following excerpts from letters that I picked out. For example, a 

 letter from Dr. Mitchell to Dr. Raper, written in October, 1951, 

 states, "I'm very sorry to hear that the cultures I brought to Peoria 

 did not survive. I can't understand why that should have hap- 

 pened, inasmuch as I have kept them for much longer periods 

 of time in the past on that medium without trouble." Another letter 

 from Mitchell two months later, "I am sorry to hear that you are 

 having difficulty with your assay procedure. I wish that I could give 

 you details of an effective assay that would give the desired results. 

 We likewise have not gotten the results ih;it wc had hoped for." A 



