L-Ascorbic acid degradation by bacteria. VIII. All the pathway in the L-ascorbic acid metabolism.

The medium used contained 3g of substrate, 150ml of 1/15M phosphate buffer and 150ml of sterile distilled water. 0.5g (dry weight) of the adapted cells was added to the medium and the whole was incubated at 30•‹ for 20 hours. For detecting the intermediate products, paper chromatography was chiefly used. For developing the nonvolatile acids, n-butanol-acetic acid-water (4:1:1) was used and the spots located with 0.1% bromphenol blue in ethanol. In the case of volatile acids, they were converted to the ammonium salts and developed with 3% ammonia in ethanol. For locating 0.1% bromphenol blue in ethanol containing 0.2% citric acid was used. 3. Effects of Various Inhibitors on the Metabolism of Glucose, D-Gluconic Acid, D-Ribose and Arabo-AsA