The Chemical Constitution of Spermine. I. The Isolation of Spermine from Animal Tissues, and the Preparation of its Salts.

AN investigation of spermine has been proceeding for some time in these laboratories, and we propose to deal in this paper with the occurrence and. isolation of this substance, and to describe some salts and derivatives which have enabled us to establish its chemical composition. It has been pointed out in the preceding communication that, according to Schreiner [1878], the base is not specific to human semen, but is widely distributed in the animal organism. Schreiner's statement was discredited until one of us [M. C. Rosenheim, 1917] confirmed it and demonstrated the occurrence of spermine in the tissues of both male and female animals, and, further, succeeded in isolating it from yeast. It is clear, then, that we are dealing with a base of general biological interest, the presence of which has been overlooked for so long owing to the very small amounts occurring in the tissues. The yields of spermine phosphate which we have obtained from various tissues are as -follows: testis (bull) 0006 %, ovary (cow) 0-014 %, pancreas 0 025 %, brain 0007 %, spleen 0.011 %, thymus 0-006 %, thyroid 0003 %, and yeast 0 01 %. It is interesting to note that the highest yield was obtained from pancreas, and that a specimen of insulin "hydrochloride" prepared by the picric acid-acetone method yielded 7 %, the entire content in spermine of the pancreas from which the insulin was prepared'. We have failed to find it in defibrinated blood (14 1.), in serum and in cow's milk (16 1.). Spermine is distinguished from all other naturally occurring bases hitherto described by the remarkable property of forming an extraordinarily insoluble phosphate. This salt is of the greatest historical importance. It is the most remarkable of all the salts of spermine, its characteristic crystalline form and great insolubility being the properties which led to its early detection (cf. the