title: Cyanamide mediated synthesis under plausible primitive earth conditions. VI. The synthesis of glycerol and glycerophosphates.
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 is sn-glycero-1 (3)-phosphate. These findings indicate that glycerol and sn-glycero-3-phosphate, which are moieties of glycerolipids, could have been formed under conditions which may have prevailed on the primitive Earth.
mesh_terms: D005075:Biological Evolution; D055598:Chemical Phenomena; D002621:Chemistry; D003484:Cyanamide / Q000494:pharmacology*; D003486:Cyanides / Q000494:pharmacology*; D005990:Glycerol / Q000138:chemical synthesis*; D005994:Glycerophosphates / Q000138:chemical synthesis*
chemical_list: D003486:Cyanides; D005994:Glycerophosphates; D003484:Cyanamide; D005990:Glycerol