GB318269A - Improvements in the production of antirachitic products - Google Patents

Abstract

318,269. Johnson, J. Y., (I. G. Farbenindustrie Akt.-Ges.). April 2, 1928. Vitamins.-Antirachitic preparations are obtained by treating ergosterol or substances containing it with corona discharges obtained by using continuous currents of high voltage or alternating currents of high voltage and frequency, or with electric corpuscular rays such as rapidlymoving electrons or ions or with R÷ntgen rays, while excluding oxygen, halogens, and the like. 'The ergosterol may be used in the solid, diluted, or vapour-like state. In the examples, (1) ergosterol is passed in suspension in a neutral gas such as nitrogen (or, if dissolved, in fog-like form) through an apparatus of the Cotterell-Moeller kind having spark electrodes and using a current at several hundred kilovolts; the progress of the treatment may be controlled by observing the ultraviolet absorption spectrum, and reduced pressure may be employed; (2) a solution of ergosterol in heptaine or the like is treated in an ozonizer using a high frequency alternating current having more than 1000 alternations per second and a tension of more than 1 kilovolt, a current of inert gas being passed through the solution; (3) ergosterol is subjected to the action of electrons or ions which are accelerated by an electrostatic field; the material may be spread in a thin layer on a dish and treated in a cathode tube, or, when using cathode rays of very high velocity, it may be effected outside the tube, the rays passing through an aluminium window; canal rays may also be used with an indifferent gas at low pressure; (4) ergosterol is treated in solid form with X-rays, a substance such as barium platinocyanide or zinc sulphide being added if desired to effect a secondary emission of ultraviolet rays. The electric treatment above described may be combined with a treatment with ultraviolet rays. Specifications 292,926; and 293,255, [Class 1 (i), Chemical processes &c.], are referred to.