420 V. CHEMISTRY OF PHOSPHATIDES AND CEREBROSIDES 



these are generally precipitated in a gelatinous mass on acidification. It 

 forms a precipitate in alcohol solution when cadmium chloride is added. 

 The specific rotation is much less than that of lecithin, being +0.8° (acetic 

 acid), +1.2° (pyridine), or —2.6° (chloroform). 



Lysolecithin has also been prepared by the action of fer-de-lance snake 

 venom (Bothrops atrox) on egg-yolk phospholipid.'^ Such preparations 

 were found to be hemolytic. Chargaff and Cohen^"" were able to prepare 

 lysolecithins in 15 to 50% yield from beef-brain and egg-yolk lecithins by 

 the use of water-moccasin (water-viper) snake venom (Ancistrodon 

 piscivorus). The analytical data on these compounds are included in 

 Table 4. 



Table 4 

 Formation of Lysolecithin from Lecithin by Water-Moccasin Snake Venom 



{Ancistrodon piHcivorufi Y 



° E. Chargaff and S. S. Cohen, /. Biol. Chem., 129, 619-028 (1939), pp. 623, 624. 

 '' Lec = lecithin, Lys = lysolecithin. 



Chargaff and Cohen ^°'' demonstrated that no fractionation of lecithin 

 occurs in the course of the formation of lysolecithin, since the iodine 

 number and other analytical figures are the same for the unsplit lecithin 

 recovered from the reaction mixture (Preparation X, Table 4) as for the 

 original material. Another interesting observation by the above in- 

 vestigators was the fact that a highly purified cadmium chloride double 

 salt of lecithin could likewise be split by snake venom. This reaction, 

 however, did not occur any more completely with the cadmium salt than 

 with lecithin, since only a 21% transformation was noted. This result is in 

 contrast to the earlier report of Contardi and Latzer,!"! who indicated 

 that the cadmium salt was split with greater ease than was free phospholipid. 



98 E. J. King and M. Dolan, Biochem. J., 27, 403-409 (1933). 



i«> E. Chargaff and S. S. Cohen, /. Biol. Chem., 129, 619-628 (1939). 



I" A. Contardi and P. Latzer, Biochem. Z., 197, 222-236 (1928). 



