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Sialic Acids

Abstract

IN 19361 one of us (G. B.) isolated from bovine submaxillary mucin a crystalline reducing acid, later2 named ‘sialic acid’. Qualitative reactions indicate that sialic acid or substances closely related to it occur in most epithelial mucins, in ovomucin, in the glycoproteins of blood serum and in gangliosides3. Crystalline substances reacting like sialic acid have now also been isolated from porcine, ovine and equine submaxillary mucin. None of these products is, however, identical with any of the others—a fact already evident from the X-ray powder diagrams (Fig. 1).

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BLIX, G., LINDBERG, E., ODIN, L. et al. Sialic Acids. Nature 175, 340–341 (1955). https://doi.org/10.1038/175340a0

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