A pathway for the biosynthesis of tropic acid from tryptophan in Datura Stramonium has been proposed by Goodeve, and was supported by Hamon. The purpose of this investigation was to determine quantitatively the percentage of incorporation of tryptophan into tropic acid. This was attempted using vacuum infiltration and sterile root culture techniques with autoradiography being utilized to identify the radioactive metabolites. Tryptophan was not found to be converted to tropic acid under the experimental conditions used in this investigation. The purpose of this investigation was also to extract crude enzyme preparations which would convert certain postulated intermediate compounds into tropic acid. The conversion of a-phenyl-3-aminopropionic acid to atropic acid and the conversion of atropic acid to tropic acid was attempted. The enzyme extracts of Datura Stramonium root tissues were prepared from acetone powders, from fresh tissue, and from freeze-dried tissues. These extracts did not show any activity in vitro. It is concluded that some differences existed between the tissues used in the present investigation and those used in previous work. / Pharmaceutical Sciences, Faculty of / Graduate

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