The biological and therapeutic significance of organic phosphates occurring in nature

Abstract

The search for technically applicable methods for the synthesis and preparation of naturally occurring organic phosphates includes finding new ways of phosphorylation and the application of up‐to‐date physico‐chemical methods for purification and analysis. The achievements of Todd and his collaborators in synthesizing pyrimidine and purine nucleotides, including adenosine triphosphate, have contributed greatly to the advances in this field, in which so many others have taken part, including my colleagues and myself. The purpose of this paper is to present the background of this synthetic adventure—a kind of stocktaking and a story largely dependent on published and printed matter, scattered in many journals and treated in articles and books [e.g. Baldwin, 1947; Lipmann, 1941; Lipmann & Kaplan, 1949; Umbreit, 1947 (added at the proof‐reading stage: Avison & Hawkins, 1951; Lynen & Koenigsberger, 1950, 1951; Oesper, 1950; Hill & Morales, 1950, 1951)], and as such far from complete.