Ergothioneine in the Seminal Vesicle Secretion

Abstract

PROTEIN-FREE extracts from the secretory fluid of the seminal vesicles exhibit a marked reducing property towards potassium permanganate and Folin's phosphotungstic reagent in the cold, and towards 2,6-dichlorophenol-indophenol in acid solution. Boar vesicular secretion, which is available in large quantities, was chosen as a convenient source for the isolation of the reducing material. In the course of purification, it was found that the reducing power went parallel with two other chemical properties of the boar vesicular secretion, namely, a strongly positive diazo reaction and the occurrence of organically bound sulphur which could be oxidized by bromine to inorganic sulphate. This suggested to us that the reducing substance may be the imidazole base ergothioneine (the betaine of thiolhistidine), first discovered by Tanret¹ in ergot, and later shown to occur in low concentrations in red blood corpuscles^2–4. The application of certain analytical procedures for the determination of ergothioneine^5–7, both in the vesicular secretion and blood of boars, showed that the level of ergothioneine in the vesicular secretion averages 40 mgm. per cent as against 6 mgm, per cent in the blood.