Some Comments on the Significance of Aminochrome Chemistry to Biology and Medicine

Some Comments on the Significance of Aminochrome Chemistry to Biology and Medicine 

6-Dihydroxyindole and 5,6-dihydroxyindole-2-carboxylic acid were shown to form after the red pigment stage that occurred during the conversion of DOPA into a melanin, by Raper, who isolated these compounds as their dimethyl ethers.72 The presence of 5,6-dihydroxyindoles in solutions of DOPA, dopamine, and noradrenaline which are undergoing oxidation has subsequently been confirmed by paper and thin-layer chromatography.118,120,222 5,6-Dihydroxyin-dole and 5,6-dihydroxyindole-2-carboxylic acid have recently been isolated from the alkali fusion products of sepiomelanin, indicating 

Animal Biochromes and Structural Colours, p. 215. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1953. 

Thomas, in Modem Methods of Plant Analysis (K. Peach and M. V. Tracey, eds.), Vol. IV, p. 661. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1955. 

in Pigment Cell Biology (M. Gordon, ed.) p. 563. Academic Press, New York, 1959. 

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