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The lipids: Their chemistry and biochemistry. Vol. III. Biochemistry
270
BOOK
REVIEWS
compounds and of mutants of microorganisms, has made great progress in defining both the structural units involved, as well as the sequence of reactions leading t,o many natural substances. By these means, two apparently distinct schemes for the biosynthesis of phenolic compounds now seem to be well established, i.e., one based on acetic acid and the other on dehydroquinic acid. Under the latter route is described the biogenesis of aromatic amino acids as revealed by the researches of Davis and associates. This is followed by a review of the biogenesis of lignin; but here, unfortunately, one fails to find reference to the first indication of the importance of shikimic acid in the process of lignification [Eberhardt and Sord, Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 66, 578 (1955)]. The aminochromes are discussed by H. Sobotks, N. Barsel, and J. 1). Chn.nley. Aminochromes are 2,3-dihydroindole-5,6-quinones or 2,3,5,6-tetrahydroindolc5,6-diones. They are produced by the oxidation and cyclization of 3,&dihydroxyphenylethylamines. The chapter begins with a thorough description of theil chemistry, and this is followed by a section on their physiology and pharmacology, including purported hypoglycemic, hallucinogenic, antipressor, and hemostatic effects. Next follows a chapter on visual pigments by R. A. Morton and G. A. J. Pitt. The study of vision concerns physical optics, chemistry, biochemistry, anatomy, electrophysiology, and psychology, as well as other disciplines in comparative zoology. In the present article, however, the problems discussed are principally the chemistry and biochemistry of visual pigments, including vitamin A, retinene, rhodopsin, porphyropsin, and others. Over-all aspects of the carbon cycle in nature are reviewed by 11. Brown. This includes the more familiar processes of photosynthesis and the oxidation of organic matter (by both respiration and direct combustion), as well as the less familiar ones of equilibrium of carbon dioxide and water, precipitation and dissolution of calcium carbonate, and the interaction between carbon dioxide and silicate rocks. Included in this volume also are chapters on acetylene compounds in the plant kingdom by F. Bohlmann and H. J. Mannhardt, recent results in the field of cardiac glycosides by Ch. Tamm, and the photodynamically :Ict.ive plant pigments by H. Brockmann. WALTER J. SCHUBERT, New York, yew lTork
The Lipids: Their Chemistry and Biochemistry. Vol. III. Biochemistry. 133 (the late) HARRY J. DEUEL, JR., Dean, Graduate School, and Professor of Biochemistry, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Calif. Intersciencr Publishers, Inc., New York, pi. Y., 1957. xxxvi + 1065 pp. Price $25.00. This is the second of two volumes on the biochemistry of the lipids in I’rofeasor Deuel’s monumental three-volume work on the subject (the first volume 11:~~. ing been devoted to their chemistry). To the profound loss of lipid research, Deuel died before this final volume was complete; knowing that his illnesa was likely to prove fatal, he gave all his effort to completing it, and had indeed written nearly all of it, but the final revision of the text and its progress through typesetting and printing were undertaken by his colleagues. The volume deals with lipid digestion, absorption, transport, and st,or:rge in living organs and tissues, with the biosynthesis of triglycerides, phospholipids, and fatty acids in the animal body, with t.he oxidation and metabolism in the
BOOK
REVIEWS
271
animal body (a) of triglycerides, fatty acids, and glycerol, and (b) of phospholipids and their hydrolysis products, with the question of the conversion of fat to carbohydrate, the role of acetic, formic, and propionic acids in intermediary fat metabolism, with the metabolism of branched-chain, hydroxy, keto, and diand tri-carboxylic acids, with the metabolism of cholesterol and other sterols, of the carotenoids and vitamins A, and of the vitamins D and E, with the physiology and biochemistry of the essential fatty acids (linoleic, arachidonic), and finally with the nutritional values of different kinds of fat. Each of these subjects has been treated in the comprehensive and exhaustive manner which characterized Deuel’s earlier volumes, and there can be very few contributions to this enormous field which have not received reference at the appropriate place. Rapidly and, in some instances, drastically as knowledge of lipid biochemistry is changing at the present time, these monographs nevertheless will be for a long time to come of outstanding help and value to the workers in the field. In many parts of the book one is impressed by the vast amount of information which has been and is being accumulated, some of it at present confusing and in some instances contradictory. The author has often been content to present a faithful record of the many findings without too definite indication as to what ultimate conclusions may be drawn. Probably he felt that in many cases the matter at issue is just now in a fluid state and that it was not timely to attempt any critical assessment. Often also (as was remarked in the writer’s review of Vol. II), the multiplicity of data makes it difficult to “see the wood for the trees” at the present stage of research. It would be better if, in certain biochemical circles, more attention was paid to some of the aspects of modern fat chemistry which are now generally accepted; not seldom there still appears to be a reluctance to give up the fat lore of fifty or more years ago. At the present time, again, there is a lack of proportion in the general approach to some aspects of lipid biochemistry. Thus Deuel requires about 25 pages to cover recent work on the biosynthesis of saturated fatty acids (including the important function of coenzyme A), but only one page for that of unsaturated fatty acids. Yet the latter exceed by far in nature the saturated acids in quantity and variety: and the only suggestion recorded by Deuel, the old and simple idea that oleic and the rest of the unsaturated acids result in viva by “desaturation” of a saturated acid, is really an entirely insufficient explanation, in the light of present knowledge of unsaturated acid occurrence in the vegetable kingdom. The printing and arrangement of the book is of similar excellence to that in the first two volumes. Here and there one has noted rather more typographical errors than in the volumes which the late Professor Deuel himself saw through to publication. In particular, it is unfortunate that in some diagrams illustrating chemical changes, (e.g., pages 115, 120, and 135), which might in any case be a little difficult to understand by physiologists or other workers not intimately familiar with involved modern organic chemistry, the positions of some substituent groups have become misplaced during typesetting. The three volumes of Deuel on The Lipids are a worthy memorial of a man who, one hoped, would have lived to add still more to his many distinguished contributions to lipid biochemistry and metabolism. T. P. HILDITCH, Birkenhead, England
BOOK
REVIEWS
compounds and of mutants of microorganisms, has made great progress in defining both the structural units involved, as well as the sequence of reactions leading t,o many natural substances. By these means, two apparently distinct schemes for the biosynthesis of phenolic compounds now seem to be well established, i.e., one based on acetic acid and the other on dehydroquinic acid. Under the latter route is described the biogenesis of aromatic amino acids as revealed by the researches of Davis and associates. This is followed by a review of the biogenesis of lignin; but here, unfortunately, one fails to find reference to the first indication of the importance of shikimic acid in the process of lignification [Eberhardt and Sord, Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 66, 578 (1955)]. The aminochromes are discussed by H. Sobotks, N. Barsel, and J. 1). Chn.nley. Aminochromes are 2,3-dihydroindole-5,6-quinones or 2,3,5,6-tetrahydroindolc5,6-diones. They are produced by the oxidation and cyclization of 3,&dihydroxyphenylethylamines. The chapter begins with a thorough description of theil chemistry, and this is followed by a section on their physiology and pharmacology, including purported hypoglycemic, hallucinogenic, antipressor, and hemostatic effects. Next follows a chapter on visual pigments by R. A. Morton and G. A. J. Pitt. The study of vision concerns physical optics, chemistry, biochemistry, anatomy, electrophysiology, and psychology, as well as other disciplines in comparative zoology. In the present article, however, the problems discussed are principally the chemistry and biochemistry of visual pigments, including vitamin A, retinene, rhodopsin, porphyropsin, and others. Over-all aspects of the carbon cycle in nature are reviewed by 11. Brown. This includes the more familiar processes of photosynthesis and the oxidation of organic matter (by both respiration and direct combustion), as well as the less familiar ones of equilibrium of carbon dioxide and water, precipitation and dissolution of calcium carbonate, and the interaction between carbon dioxide and silicate rocks. Included in this volume also are chapters on acetylene compounds in the plant kingdom by F. Bohlmann and H. J. Mannhardt, recent results in the field of cardiac glycosides by Ch. Tamm, and the photodynamically :Ict.ive plant pigments by H. Brockmann. WALTER J. SCHUBERT, New York, yew lTork
The Lipids: Their Chemistry and Biochemistry. Vol. III. Biochemistry. 133 (the late) HARRY J. DEUEL, JR., Dean, Graduate School, and Professor of Biochemistry, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Calif. Intersciencr Publishers, Inc., New York, pi. Y., 1957. xxxvi + 1065 pp. Price $25.00. This is the second of two volumes on the biochemistry of the lipids in I’rofeasor Deuel’s monumental three-volume work on the subject (the first volume 11:~~. ing been devoted to their chemistry). To the profound loss of lipid research, Deuel died before this final volume was complete; knowing that his illnesa was likely to prove fatal, he gave all his effort to completing it, and had indeed written nearly all of it, but the final revision of the text and its progress through typesetting and printing were undertaken by his colleagues. The volume deals with lipid digestion, absorption, transport, and st,or:rge in living organs and tissues, with the biosynthesis of triglycerides, phospholipids, and fatty acids in the animal body, with t.he oxidation and metabolism in the
BOOK
REVIEWS
271
animal body (a) of triglycerides, fatty acids, and glycerol, and (b) of phospholipids and their hydrolysis products, with the question of the conversion of fat to carbohydrate, the role of acetic, formic, and propionic acids in intermediary fat metabolism, with the metabolism of branched-chain, hydroxy, keto, and diand tri-carboxylic acids, with the metabolism of cholesterol and other sterols, of the carotenoids and vitamins A, and of the vitamins D and E, with the physiology and biochemistry of the essential fatty acids (linoleic, arachidonic), and finally with the nutritional values of different kinds of fat. Each of these subjects has been treated in the comprehensive and exhaustive manner which characterized Deuel’s earlier volumes, and there can be very few contributions to this enormous field which have not received reference at the appropriate place. Rapidly and, in some instances, drastically as knowledge of lipid biochemistry is changing at the present time, these monographs nevertheless will be for a long time to come of outstanding help and value to the workers in the field. In many parts of the book one is impressed by the vast amount of information which has been and is being accumulated, some of it at present confusing and in some instances contradictory. The author has often been content to present a faithful record of the many findings without too definite indication as to what ultimate conclusions may be drawn. Probably he felt that in many cases the matter at issue is just now in a fluid state and that it was not timely to attempt any critical assessment. Often also (as was remarked in the writer’s review of Vol. II), the multiplicity of data makes it difficult to “see the wood for the trees” at the present stage of research. It would be better if, in certain biochemical circles, more attention was paid to some of the aspects of modern fat chemistry which are now generally accepted; not seldom there still appears to be a reluctance to give up the fat lore of fifty or more years ago. At the present time, again, there is a lack of proportion in the general approach to some aspects of lipid biochemistry. Thus Deuel requires about 25 pages to cover recent work on the biosynthesis of saturated fatty acids (including the important function of coenzyme A), but only one page for that of unsaturated fatty acids. Yet the latter exceed by far in nature the saturated acids in quantity and variety: and the only suggestion recorded by Deuel, the old and simple idea that oleic and the rest of the unsaturated acids result in viva by “desaturation” of a saturated acid, is really an entirely insufficient explanation, in the light of present knowledge of unsaturated acid occurrence in the vegetable kingdom. The printing and arrangement of the book is of similar excellence to that in the first two volumes. Here and there one has noted rather more typographical errors than in the volumes which the late Professor Deuel himself saw through to publication. In particular, it is unfortunate that in some diagrams illustrating chemical changes, (e.g., pages 115, 120, and 135), which might in any case be a little difficult to understand by physiologists or other workers not intimately familiar with involved modern organic chemistry, the positions of some substituent groups have become misplaced during typesetting. The three volumes of Deuel on The Lipids are a worthy memorial of a man who, one hoped, would have lived to add still more to his many distinguished contributions to lipid biochemistry and metabolism. T. P. HILDITCH, Birkenhead, England