Natural Occurrence of Amino Acids in Virgin Crocidolite Asbestos and Banded Ironstone

Our plain-English summary of Natural Occurrence of Amino Acids in Virgin Crocidolite Asbestos and Banded Ironstone, by J.S. Harington (Science, 1962).

The study

• Author: J.S. Harington
• Journal: Science
• Published: 1962;138(3539):521-2
• Cited by: 4 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Summary of the article

This short report gave further details of amino acids found naturally with virgin crocidolite asbestos from the North-Western Cape, Republic of South Africa. The author had earlier reported fluorescent oils containing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and amino acids in crocidolite and amosite asbestos but not in chrysotile. Fiber samples were taken from cobs of asbestos in a way intended to make contamination extremely unlikely. They were extracted under reflux for 1 hour with boiling 80 percent ethanol-water and then dried, giving a brownish-yellow oily extract equal to 0.025 percent of the asbestos sample. Two extractions of the surrounding country rock gave 123 mg/100 g and 42 mg/100 g of oil. Paper chromatography showed three amino acids in both country rock extracts and eight in the crocidolite extract. Quantitative column chromatography of the crocidolite extract found ten amino acids. Serine was the most abundant at 0.095 mg/100 g of fiber, and the total was 0.268 mg/100 g (0.00027 percent). The author noted that, except for serine, all of these amino acids had been found by earlier workers in fossils, marine mud and sedimentary rocks. Virtually the same amino acids had been found in Gunflint chert, which is also a banded ironstone formation. The concentration in crocidolite was low compared with other settings, such as 0.0026 to 0.03 percent in fossils and 0.02 percent in Middle Huronian ironstones.

PubMed has no abstract for this study, and the article doesn't print one. We wrote this summary from the full article with the help of AI. It is not the authors' wording.

In plain English

This short 1962 laboratory report described amino acids found naturally in virgin crocidolite asbestos from the North-Western Cape, South Africa. It did not study people or disease. Fiber samples were taken in a way the author said made contamination extremely unlikely. They were boiled in an ethanol-water mixture, and the oily extract amounted to 0.025 percent of the asbestos sample. Extracts of the surrounding country rock gave 123 mg and 42 mg of oil per 100 g of crushed rock. Paper chromatography showed three amino acids in both rock extracts and eight in the crocidolite extract, which the author identified only tentatively. A quantitative column method then measured ten amino acids in the crocidolite extract, totaling 0.268 mg per 100 g of fiber (0.00027 percent). Serine was the largest, at 0.095 mg per 100 g. The author noted that, except for serine, these amino acids had been found by other researchers in fossils and sedimentary rocks. The author also noted that the amount in crocidolite was low compared with those other settings.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: laboratory chemical analysis of mineral samples (solvent extraction followed by paper and column chromatography for amino acids)
• Who was studied: samples of virgin crocidolite asbestos fiber, and of its country rock, from the North-Western Cape, Republic of South Africa; no people were studied; number of samples not stated
• Exposure: no human exposure was studied; the material analysed was crocidolite asbestos fiber taken from cobs of asbestos, plus pulverized country rock of crocidolite (banded ironstone, per the title)
• Main results:
  • Extraction of the crocidolite fiber with boiling ethanol-water gave an oily extract equal to 0.025 percent of the asbestos sample
  • Extractions of the country rock of crocidolite gave 123 mg/100 g and 42 mg/100 g of oil from pulverized material
  • Paper chromatography showed three amino acids in both country rock extracts and eight in the crocidolite extract, tentatively identified as alanine, glycine, aspartic acid, leucine or isoleucine, glutamic acid, lysine, histidine, and cystine
  • Quantitative column analysis of the crocidolite extract found ten amino acids. Serine was highest at 0.095 mg/100 g of fiber. The total was 0.268 mg/100 g of fiber, or 0.00027 percent.
  • Except for serine, all amino acids found in the crocidolite had previously been reported by other workers in other geological materials
• The authors' conclusion: The author stated that the concentration of amino acids in crocidolite was low compared with concentrations other workers had reported in fossils, marine mud and ironstones
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The author described the identification of the amino acids by paper chromatography as tentative

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Crocidolite, Banded Iron Formation, Amosite, Chrysotile, Country Rock.

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