322 GLYCURONIC ACID 



Occurrence of Glycuronic Acid in the Body. As for the 

 occurence of compounds of glycuronic acid in the economy, 

 this substance has been recognized by C. Neuberg and Paul 

 Meyer and by Lepine and Boulud, as a normal constituent of 

 the urine and of the blood, although apparently no notable 

 amounts are apt to accumulate in the tissues generally. 55 

 According to the opinion of the last-named authors the 

 increment in reducing power of blood extracts after hydro- 

 lytic cleavage ("suere virtue!") may at least partly be 

 referred to glycuronic acid compounds supposed to be pres- 

 ent especially in the formed elements of the blood. 56 



Importance of Glycuronic Acid in Diagnosis of Intestinal 

 Disturbances and Diseases of the Liver. Excretion of gly- 

 curonic acid in the urine apparently depends primarily 

 upon digestive conditions and intestinal putrefaction, and 

 thereafter upon the quantities of indol and phenol available 

 for conjugation. According to E. Mayerhofer's studies a 

 new reaction, originated by Guido Goldschmiedt (v. infra), 

 producing a green color from the action of a-naphthol and 

 concentrated sulphuric acid upon glycuronic acid, is in gen- 

 eral the most delicate mode of detecting the presence of 

 intestinal disturbances in infants. While the test is in- 

 variably negative in well nourished breast-fed children, it is 

 sufficiently delicate to give a positive result with even the 

 slightest nutritive disturbances with an associated height- 

 ening of intestinal putrefaction, the intensity of color in- 

 creasing and decreasing with the grade of the affection. In 

 artificially fed infants, who are practically never free, as is 

 known, from nutritive disturbances, the absence of 



85 Literature upon the Occurrence of Glycuronic Acid Compounds in the 

 Body: C. Neuberg, Handb. d. Pathol. d. Stoffw., 2, 226, 1907. 



66 R. Le"pine and Boulud, Compt Rendu, 1^1, 453, 1905, and earlier con- 

 tributions; Jour, de Physiol., 7, 775, 1905. 



