352 



INOSITOLS 



More recent work with other organisms has demonstrated that L-inositol 

 has some vitamin activity for Eremothecium ashhyii and for the inositol- 

 less mutant of Neurospora crassa, but that D-inositol is completely inactive 

 for these organisms.* Two other isomers, epz-inositol and scyllitol, were 

 also tested and found to have some vitamin activity for the former but not 

 for the latter organism. For Eremothecium ashhyii myo-\noh\to\ monophos- 

 phate has from 50 to 100 % of the activity of the free form;'^ for Neurospora 

 crassa, the ester has little or no activity.*'^ For another organism, Rhizopus 

 Cohnii^- ^ m?/o-inositol was the most active isomer, but mytilitol, isomytili- 



TABLE IV 

 Activity of Comfounds Related to Inositol for Mice and for Yeast" 



Growth effect 

 Curative on yeast as 



effect on compared to 



Compound mice wyo-inositol, % 



° Hansen No. 1 strain of Toronto yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae). 



tol, hydroxyisomytilitol, and epz-inositol also had some activity, myo- 

 inositol monophosphate was also quite well utilized by this organism. 



The reversal of the inhibitory action of malonate on Clostridium sac- 

 char obulyricum by w//o-inositol has been shown to be quite specific.^" The 

 D and L isomers did not reverse the inhibition. 



It has been suggested^ that, for certain microorganisms at least, three 



6?. Chaix, Bull. soc. chim. biol. 30, 835 (1948). 



6 B. M. Iselin, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 71, 3822 (1949). 



^ W. H. Schopfer, T. Posternak, and M. L. Boss, Intern. Z. Vitaminforsch. 20, 121 



(1948) [C. A. 43, 1457 (1949)]. 

 « W. H. Schopfer, Helv. Chim. Acta 27, 468 (1944). 

 " W. H. Schopfer, Bull. soc. chim. biol. 33, 1113 (1951). 

 '» A. J. Rosenberg, Compt. rend. soc. biol. 142, 443 (1948). 



