Abstract
THANKS largely to the extensive researches of Levene and his collaborators, it now appears to be well established that, as suggested by Clough in 19181, the naturally occurring α amino-acids all possess the same configuration. Until recently, the absolute configuration was not known for any optically active compound, but in the course of a theoretical calculation of rotatory power, Boys2 deduced a rule giving the absolute configuration of any enantiomorph from the sense of its rotation—namely, "that a dextro compound has the configuration such that, when the largest group is nearest to the hypothetical observer the other groups in order of diminishing size appear in a clockwise rotation".
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References
Clough, G. W., J. Chem. Soc., 113, 526 (1918).
Boys, S. F., Proc. Roy. Soc., A, 144, 655 (1934).
Levene, P. A., and Mardashew, S., J. Biol. Chem., 117, 707 (1937).
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RAINEY, R. Absolute Configuration of the Naturally Occurring α Amino-Acids. Nature 140, 150 (1937). https://doi.org/10.1038/140150a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/140150a0
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