Growth-retarding effect of degradation solution of dehydroascorbic acid on Escherichia coli.

Abstract

Many studies on the physiological function of dehydroascorbic acid (DHA) have been done in correlation with the redox system, but there are also papers showing that DHA reacts with cell components in the mode of action different from the redox reaction. We have had a concept that DHA possibly takes part in the control of cell growth through working directly on the cell components such as DNA. To clarify this point, we studied the effect of DHA on the growth of mouse tumor cells1)2) or callus cells3) and the action on DNA2). However, it is difficult to fix the real active principles since DHA is unstable in aqueous solution and is decomposed into various unstable intermediates. In order to make the effect clearer, it is desirable first of all to isolate the active compounds from the mixture of degradation products in the solution of DHA. This paper reports the bacterial growth-retarding potencies of the degradation solution of DHA and its fractions separated by ion-exchange chromatography.