Antianemic preparations

The fact that aldehydes form polymers suggested the possibility that such aldehydes were present in active antianemic preparations. In support of his suggestion that the active principle functions by way of modifying tryptic digestion is the evidence that the activity of trypsin is inhibited by aldehyde. 

M33. Meulengracht, E., Presence of the antianemic factor in preparations of dried stomach substance from the cardia, fundus and pylorus respectively. Acta Med. Scand. 82, 352-374 (1934). 

An obvious objection to their conclusion is that if they divorce from the pernicious-anemia curing factor the ability to elicit a reticulocyte response, it is difficult to explain the reticulocyte increase which does occur in the treatment of pernicious anemia patients with such preparations as those to which they attribute only that factor. It is also doubtful whether a normal person can be used to test for any component of the antianemic principle. 

Karrer, Frei, and Fritzsche in 1937 (66) reported that liver preparations which possess full antianemic potency in a singly administered dose of 10-20 mg. contain considerable quantities of phosphorus, the magnitudes of which seem to run parallel with the activity. In their best fractions, they found about 3.8 per cent of this element. Since they also observed pentose and adenine occurring in amounts corresponding to the presence of phosphorus, they concluded that their preparations contain an adenin-nucleotide. 

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