Pteridines

Abstract

Although Meldola drew attention in 1871 to the solubility in water of the yellow pigment of the common English brimstone butterfly (Gonepteryx rhamni) it was another twenty years before the pigment was examined chemically by Hopkins. His investigations into the pigments of butterfly wings revealed that there are several of these water-soluble compounds. Subsequently, they were shown to occur widely as insect eye pigments, and one, given the name xanthopterin, was discovered in human urine. It was not, however, until 1940 that the structures of these compounds began to be elucidated and confirmed by synthesis. This was largely the work of Wieland and Weygand and their respective associates. It was Wieland who, in 1941, named the compounds ’pteridines’ (Greek pteron = wing).