VII. ESTIMATION OF INOSITOL 361 



C. BY PAPER CHROMATOGRAPHY 

 ARTHUR H. LIVERMORE 



A qualitative determination of inositol can be made readily with filter 

 paper chromatograms.""'^ Altliough inositol is not readily oxidized in 

 solution by ammoniacal silver nitrate, this reagent can be used to detect 

 inositol on the filter paper chromatogram. The reduction of the silver by 

 the inositol spot proceeds more readily if a little NaOH is added to the 

 silver reagent. ^^ 



Quantitatively the inositol can be extracted from the filter paper, oxidized 

 with periodate, and the resultant formic acid titrated. ^^ No data have been 

 given from which the accuracy and precision of this method can be de- 

 termined. 



D. BY MOUSE ASSAY 



ARTHUR H. LIVERMORE 



Woolley^" demonstrated that inositol-deficient mice developed alopecia 

 and that administration of inositol to the deficient animals cured this 

 disorder. He used this method-^'-^ to determine the inositol activity of 

 various analogs of the vitamin. The mouse assay has not been developed 

 into a strictly quantitative method for determining inositol. ]\Ioreover, it 

 has now been supplanted by the more convenient and rapid microbiological 

 assays. 



E. BY MICROBIOLOGICAL ASSAY 



E. E. SNELL 



Inositol, the first component of "bios" to be identified, was first shown 

 to promote growth of yeast by Eastcott.-'* Many, but not all, yeasts re- 

 quire this compound, together with one or more other vitamins,-^ and the 

 response of suitable strains of yeast to it remains the basis for the most 

 convenient procedures for its estimation. 



Of the several naturally occurring compounds related to inositol, only the 



" S. M. Partridge and R. G. Westall, Biochem. J. {London) 42, 238 (1948). 



18 L. Hough, Nature 165, 400 (1950). 



19 E. L. Hirst and J. K. N. Jones, J. Chem. Soc. 1949, 1659. 



20 C. L. Withner, Am. J. Botany 36, 3.55 (1949). 



21 D. W. Woolley, J. Biol. Chem. 140, 461 (1941). 

 " D. W. Woolley, /. Biol. Chem. 139, 29 (1941). 

 " D. W. Woolley, /. Biol. Chem. 140, 453 (1941). 

 " E. V. Eastcott, ./. Phys. Chem. 32, 1094 (1928). 



" P. R. Burkholder, I. McVeigh, and D. Moyer, J. Bacterial. 48, 385 (1944). 



