Cyanamide mediated synthesis under plausible primitive earth conditions

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The formation of glycerol occurs when a solution of DL-glyceraldehyde is heated in the presence of hydrogen sulfide at room temperature. DL-glyceraldehyde and dihydroxyacetone treated with hydrazine, as well as DL-glyceraldehyde incubated with formaldehyde are also partially converted to glycerol. The yields of the above reactions are from approximately 1% to about 3%. The formation of glycerophosphates occurs when glycerol is heated with ammonium dihydrogen phosphate and either urea or cyanamide. The yield of glycerophosphates is about 30%, most of which issn-glycero-1 (3)-phosphate. These findings indicate that glycerol andsn-glycero-3-phosphate, which are moieties of glycerolipids, could have been formed under conditions which may have prevailed on the primitive Earth.