II. CHEMISTRY 591 



I. Nomenclature 



ROBERT S. HARRIS 



Accepted name: Pantothenic acid^ 

 Obsolete names: Liver factor 2^ 



Antidermatitis factor^ 



Chick antidermatitis factor* 



Liver filtrate factor^ 



Yeast filtrate factor^ 



Chick antipellagra (A. P.) factor' 

 Empirical formula : CgHiyOsN 



Chemical name : a ,7-Dihydroxy-i3 , /3-dimethylbutyryl-i3'-alanine 

 Structural formula : 



CH3 



I 

 HOCH2— C— CHOH— CO— NH— CH2— CH2— COOH 



I 

 CH3 



II. Chemistry 



SAMUEL LEPKOVSKY 



A. ISOLATION 



The isolation of pantothenic acid was accomplished during a period in 

 the history of nutrition that was characterized by confusion and mis- 

 understanding. This was caused by the mistaken notion that vitamin G 

 or B2 was a single factor instead of a multiplicity of factors which had 

 similar chemical properties and were associated together in such food- 

 stuffs as yeast, liver, and wheat germ. Goldberger and Lillie^ predicted 

 this in what became a masterpiece of understatement. "The possibility, 

 remote though it seems, is not excluded that there may be in yeast more 



1 R. J. Williams, C. M. Lyman, G. H. Goodyear, T. H. Truesdail, and D. Holaday, 

 /. Am. Chem. Soc. 55, 2012 (1932). 



2 S. Lepkovsky, T. H. Jukes, and M. E. Krause, J. Biol. Chem. 115, 557 (1936). 



3 J. C. Bauernfeind, A. E. Schumacher, A. Z. Hodson, L. C. Norris, and G. F. 

 Heuser, Proc. Soc. Exptl. Biol. Med. 39, 108 (1938). 



' O. Mickelsen, H. A. Waisman, and C. A. Elvehjem, /. Biol. Chem. 124, 313 (1938). 

 6 T. H. Jukes and S. Lepkovsky, J. Biol. Chem. Ill, 119 (1935). 



6 C. E. Edgar and T. F. Macrae, Biochem. J. 31, 886, 893 (1937). 



7 C. J. Koehn, Jr., and C. A. Elvehjem, /. Biol. Chem. 118, 693 (1937). 



1 J. Goldberger and R. D. Lillie, Public Health Repts. {U. S.) 41, 297 (1926). 



