Isolation and identification of erythroascorbic acid in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Lypomyces starkeyi

The acid-soluble extract from Lypomyces starkeyi contains an unknown acidic, electrochemically-reactive compound with the retention time relative to ascorbic acid of 0.87 when separated by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) on an ion exchange column (Leung and Loewus, Plant Sci., 38 (1985) 65). Incubation of L. starkeyi under anaerobic conditions results in loss of this unknown retention time relative to l-ascorbic acid using HPLC (R AA)0.87 component and accumulation of a new acidic, electrochemically-reactive compound, R AA1.15, identified by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) as erythroascorbic acid. Erythroascorbic acid, but not the unknown compound R AA0.87, is also found in acid-soluble extracts from Saccharomyces cerevisiae, strain G-25 and a commercial baker's yeast.