Abstract
CHEMISTRY. VARIOUS colour tests have been proposed for the * detection of vitamin D, but none of those yet described is specific. Thus W. A. Sexton (Biochem. J., vol. 22, p. 1133; 1928) has investigated the reaction obtained by heating a source of vitamin D with aniline hydrochloride in excess of aniline, when a red colour is produced. It was found that in addition to cod-liver oil and irradiated ergosterol, a similar colour was given also by unsaturated ketones, such as chcdestenone, oxycholestenone, oxychole-sterylene and carvone: with saturated ketones, such as cholestane-4-one or camphor, only slight darkening of the mixture was observed. The results suggest, however, that the vitamin, or an accompanying irradiation product of ergosterol, is ketonic in character. The phosphomolybdotungstic acid test is even less characteristic; though cod-liver oil gives a positive reaction, irradiated ergosterol is negative. Ergosterol itself, however, shows certain colour reactions which not only are useful for detecting its presence in mixtures, but also throw light upon its chemical structure as well as that of some other sterols.
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Recent Work on Vitamin D.: II. Nature 126, 222–223 (1930). https://doi.org/10.1038/126222a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/126222a0