ISOLATION OF A HEXOSEMONOPHOSPHATE FROM PEA LEAVES

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Abstract
A hexosemonophosphate was isolated from pea leaves which proved to be a mixture of glucose- and fructose-phosphoric acid esters. The specific rotation [[alpha]]D of the Ba salt of this ester was [long dash]25[degree]. It is suggested that phos-phorylation of the glucose and fructose components is a necessary step in the synthesis of sucrose in the plant. This assumption would readily explain the occurrence of the unstable furanose form of fructose in the sucrose molecule. The isolation of a hexosephosphate from pea leaves affords further evidence that phosphorylation takes place in the higher plants with the production of phosphoric esters similar to those found in yeast or muscle, and suggests a possible parallelism between carbohydrate metabolism in the higher plants and that of yeast or muscle.