Dibenzoyl ornithine

Ornithine or a, h-diamimrvalerianic Acid.—In 1877 JafTe obtained from the urine of birds, which he had fed with benzoic acid, dibenzoyl ornithine or ornithuric acid, and from this substance he prepared ornithine chloride. He regarded it as a diaminovalerianic acid, the first known representative of the series of diamino acids, but only in 1898 was the position of the two amino groups definitely determined by Ellinger, who obtained putrescine from it by putrefaction the identity of putrescine with tetramethylenediamine had been previously shown by... 

Pyrrolidine is the simple five-membered cyclic amine and pyrrolidine alkaloids contain this ring somewhere in their structure. Both nicotine and atropine contain a pyrrolidine ring as do hygrine and tropinone. All are made in nature from ornithine. Ornithine is an amino acid not usually found in proteins but most organisms use it, often in the excretion of toxic substances. If birds are fed benzoic acid (PI1CO2H) they excrete dibenzoyl ornithine. When dead animals decay, the decarboxylation of ornithine leads to putrescine which, as its name suggest, smells revolting. It is the smell of death . 

Hippuric acid is a normal product of metabolism. It is produced in the kidney by the enzymic union of benzoic acid and glycine (Schmiede-berg and Bunge, 1877). In birds benzoic acid is rendered innocuous by combination with ornithine (aS-diamino-valeric acid) to form the dibenzoyl-derivative, so-called ornithuric acid (Jaffe). 

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