philothionn.

1888 Jrnl. Chem. Soc. 54 1101 It follows that the substance, to which the author gives the name philothion, exists in animal tissues in a form different from that in which it exists in yeast. It stands to sulphur in the same physiological relation as hæmoglobin to oxygen, that is to say, it renders it soluble and assimilable.

1900 Jrnl. Chem. Soc. 78 ii. 678 The evolution of gas [from the yeast] is almost immediately arrested by the addition of sulphur, a fact which suggests that the ferments in question are closely related to philothion or hydrogenase.

1921 F. G. Hopkins in Biochem. Jrnl. 15 297 Provisionally, for easy reference, the name Glutathione will perhaps be admissible. It leaves a link with the historic Philothion, has the same termination as Peptone.., and is a sufficient reminder that the dipeptide contains glutamic acid linked to a sulphur compound.

1954 T. Wieland in S. Colowick et al. Glutathione 45 In 1888 de Rey-Pailhade..described a substance containing sulfur which he had been able to isolate from yeast in an impure state and which he called ‘philothion’.

1997 Jrnl. Nutritional Biochem. 8 660/1 Hopkins observed that philothion in muscle, liver, and yeast could be extracted with water, and he suspected that philothion was a dipeptide containing glutamate and cysteine.