ANALOGUES 



ashhyii or S. cerevisiae or with pea roots, and it must therefore be 

 concluded that the antagonistic action of inositol towards lindane, 

 if it exists at all, is not comparable with the anti-vitamin activity of 

 such substances as sulphanilamide and pantoyltaurine. 



References to Section 14 



1. G. Fraenkel and M. Blewett, Nature, 1943, 151, 703. 



2. R. E. Slade, Chetn. and Ind., 1945, 314. 



3. S. Kirlavood and P. H. Phillips, /. Biol. Chem., 1946, 163, 251. 



4. H. W. Burton, S. E. Jacobs and A. Goldstein, Nature, 1946, 158, 



22. 



5. J. C. McGowan, /. Soc. Chem. Ind., 1947, 66, 446. 



6. E. Chargaff, R. N. Stewart and B. Magasanik, Science, 1948, 108, 



7. W. H. Schopfer, T. Posternak and M. L. Bossi, Schweiz. Z. Path. 



Bakt., 1947, 10, (4), 443 ; W. H. Schopfer and M. L. Bein. 

 Experientia, 1948, 4, 147. 



15. ANALOGUES OF INOSITOL 



The biological activity of w^so-inositol (I) is not shared by its 

 stereo-isomers, or by closely related compounds, with one or two 

 exceptions. Thus d- (II) and /-inositol, pinitol and quebrachitol, the 

 corresponding monomethyl ethers, and quercitol (III) were inactive 

 in counteracting alopecia in mice and as growth factors for yeast, but 

 mytilitol (IV), a cyclitol which occurs in mussels, exhibited some 

 activity towards both organisms. ^ Scyllitol (V), as well as its homo- 

 logue mytilitol, had some growth-promoting action on Rhizopus 

 suinus, and ^'somytilitol (VI), the methyl homologue of w^so-inositol, 

 was slightly more active ; oxy-mytilitol and oxy-jsomytilitol were 

 inactive. 2 These results indicate that three cts-hydroxy groups are 

 essential for biological activity. 



The growth-stimulating action of meso-inositol on Rhizopus suinus 

 and Eremothecium ashhyii was not shared by a-, /S-, or y-cyclohexane- 

 1:2: 3-triol.3 Three diastereoisomeric inosamines, monoamino ana- 

 logues of inositol, were prepared,* but their biological activity has not 

 been recorded. 



Phytin, the calcium magnesium hydrogen salt of inositol-phos- 

 phoric ester (page 570), cured alopecia in mice at a level of 100 mg. 

 per 100 g. of diet, being about one-tenth as active as inositol itself, 

 but it was inactive as a growth-factor for yeast. ^ Inositol hexa-acetate 

 was active on mice, but inactive on yeast, whilst quinic acid (VII) and 

 inosose (VIII) were inactive on yeast and had an uncertain effect in 



579 



