Interaction of halogenacetates and SH compounds

Abstract

drew attention to the remarkably toxic nature of certain of the halogenacetic acids and their role as powerful and selective inhibitors of lactic acid formation and of alcoholic fermentation, these compounds have assumed great importance in physiology, and the numerous investigations of fundamental value to the theories of muscular contraction, tissue glycolysis and fermentation which have resulted show the usefulness of these labile halogen compounds as reagents in the study of intermediary tissue metabolism. But in spite of the many investigations, in no one case has the mechanism of their action been explicable in any clearly defined way, though various suggestions, such as those of Waldschmidt-Leitz and Schiffner [1932] and of Bersin [1932], have been advanced from time to time.