The properties of pure glutathione

Abstract

THE sulphur-containing peptide glutathione was first isolated by Hopkins [1921] in a non-crystalline form. He showed that it contained cysteine and glutamic acid, and the analytical figures seemed to indicate that it was a dipeptide containing those two amino-acids alone. Like cysteine itself, the substance in neutral aqueous solution rapidly absorbed oxygen, becoming converted into the oxidised or disulphide form. Hopkins showed that this disulphide form was rapidly reduced back to the sulphydryl form by animal tissues, so that it seemed clear that part of the oxygen normally absorbed by the respiring tissues was being utilised by the glutathione system.