Abstract
A CHARACTERISTIC property of Prof. Szent-Györgyi's hexuronic acid is its behaviour towards iodine. Two atoms of iodine are taken up in aqueous solution (neutral or acid) with formation of two molecules of hydrogen iodide. We find that this is due to oxidation at a double bond. The intervention of water is essential and the product, which is not a di-iodide, can be reduced to hexuronic acid. Regeneration of hexuronic acid occurs only when the aqueous solution of the oxidation product is reduced, for example, by evaporation in the presence of hydrogen iodide.
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Cox, E., HIRST, E. & REYNOLDS, R. Hexuronic Acid as the Antiscorbutic Factor. Nature 130, 888 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/130888a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/130888a0
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