Separation of the Phosphoric Esters on the Filter Paper Chromatogram

Abstract

PHOSPHORIC esters play a central part in the biological world bY linking processes of respiration and fermentation with other essential cellular reactions. More tnan twenty substances of this group, mainly sugars and related substances esterified with phosphoric acid, are known to form intermediate in the network of enzymic reactions associated with the breakdown and interconversion of carbohydrates in plants and animals. Both in the intact cell and in the isolated enzyme systems in which these reactions are studied, phosphoric esters usually occur in mixtures, and progress in this important field has depended upon the development of methods for identifying and determining the individual esters present in such mixtures. Existing methods of analysis depend mainly upon the fractionation of salts of the esters and the selective hydrolysis of some of them, under standard conditions, these procedures being supplemented when possible by methods based on more specific reactions given by particular esters. Except when applied to certain relatively simple mixtures, these methods frequently fail to yield diagnostic results.