In summary, the book gives an up-to-date account of the field and can be recommended to those interested in the occurrence of excited states in chemistry and biology.

Enrique Cadenas [NB 622 IE] Institut fur Physiologische Chemie der Universitat Dusseldorf (FRO)

Vitamin BIZ. Vol. 1: Chemistry; Vol. 2: Biochemistry and Medicine. Edited by D . Dolphin. Wiley Interscience, Chichester 1982. xiv, 677 pp., bound/xiv, 505 pp., bound, together E90.00. This two-volume work, which is the most comprehensive

up to now covering vitamin BIZ, fulfills its claim to cover the chemistry, biochemistry and medicine of this group of compounds. It has been possible to recruit leading scien- tists for each of the topics to which a chapter is devoted.

Volume 1 with almost 600 pages of text is devoted to chemistry. A historical introduction (Folkers) and a sum- mary of the nomenclature (Cohn) are followed by an exten- sive third chapter (84 p.) by J. Pickworth-Glusker devoted to the structures of corrinoids and containing a wealth of data not all of which had previously been published. The numerous tables and figures and the detailed discussion concerning structure-activity relationships make the few slight errors on p. 77 and 78 seem unimportant. The im- pressive advances made recently are described by Buttersby and McDonald in a fascinating chapter on the biosynthesis of the corrin macrocycle. In chapter 5 there follows the biosynthesis of the cobalamine coenzyme (Huennekens et a].). The chapter on “The total synthesis of Vitamin Bt2” by Stevens which is obligatory for any book on the subject presents this complex project, which has been the subject of previous reviews, in a very informative manner. The long needed summary of the rich chemistry of the corrin li- gand by Bonnett is just as useful; here too, results are quoted that were until now only available in dissertations. Then follow two chapters concerning the synthesis ( K . L. Brown) and reactivity (Hogenkamp) of organocobalt com- plexes. Chapters 10, 14, and 15 are particularly devoted to the central theme of coenzyme BIZ chemistry, the reactivity of the Co-C bond. Chapter 10 by Pratt, engagedly and colorfully written, is detailed (68 p.) and contains an at- tempt to formulate a basic unified mechanistic view of the vitamin B,,-dependent isomerases that is not completely established and unchallenged in all aspects. Chapters by Halpern and by Colding close the first volume with discus- sions of the models and theories for coenzyme BIZ cata- lyzed reactions. Chapters 11 (Giunnotti: UV/VIS, CD, MCD), 12 (Pilbrow: ESR), and 13 (Williams et al.: NMR), which contain many data which had previously been scat- tered throughout the literature or were unpublished, are somewhat arbitrarily interposed between the contributions on the above range of topics.

The second, smaller volume covers biochemistry and medicine. Chapter 5 on metal-free corrinoids (Koppenhag- en) is rather misplaced here and it would have been better to include it in the first volume. The “medical” chapters 1-4 (Beck, Bradbeer, Nexe and Olesen) which cover in- trinsic factor, cobalamine transport and determination are easily readable and understandable for an organic chemist. A short informative chapter (15 p.) on methyl transfer reactions (J . M. Wood) is followed by one concerned with a discussion of acetate biosynthesis which goes beyond the

bounds of corrin chemistry, by Ljungdahl and H. G. Wood. The second half of the volume contains seven detailed treatments of coenzyme B,2-catalyzed enzyme reactions. The common “design” (history, sources, isolation, meas- urement of the enzymes’ activity; substrates and mecha- nism of the enzyme reaction) is enriched by the varied presentations of the authors (Baker and Stadtman, Toraya and Fukui, Babior, Switzer, Taylor, Retey, Blakley). The possibly unavoidable repetition of material already pre- sented in chapters 9, 10, 14, and 15 of the first volume is not too disturbing.

Both volumes contain detailed subject and author in- dexes. The quality of the illustrations and the print is very high; the price is high but reasonable in comparison with similar works. These books can be highly recommended; not only are they a “must” for every scientist working in the vitamin BI2 field but are also important, for example, for chemists dealing with organometailic compounds, bioorganic chemistry, or heterocyclic natural products. Apart from the well-done presentation of the “state of the art”, the importance of this work lies in the fact that the many controversies and “unwritten chapters” in this long and intensively studied field are brought before our eyes.

Engelbert Zass [NB 637 IE] Laboratorium fur Organische Chemie der

Eidgenossischen Technischen Hochschule Zurich

Ullmanns Encyklopadie der technischen Chemie. Edited by E. Bartholomi, E. Biekert, H . Hellmann, H. Ley f . W. M. Weigert f . and E. Weise. Verlag Chemie, Weinheim 1983. 4th Edition. Volume 23, Textilhilfsmittel bis Vul- kanfiber. xv, 750 pp., bound, DM 545.00. With the publication of the 23rd Volume of the 4th Edi-

tion of Ullmann’*] only one further volume and the general index are required to complete the series. This means that, on average, two volumes per year have been produced, a marvellous performance on the part of the editors and publishers, which is the more imposing if one takes the trouble to ascertain the number of authors involved in the production of a single volume. There were more than 80 for this volume.

Once again the sub.jects included in the volume are drawn from every area of industrial chemistry; that is, from inorganic chemistry: thallium, thorium, titanium, va- nadium, and uranium together with their alloys and com- pounds, then the transuranic elements (excepting pluton- ium which is discussed in its own right in Volume 18) and some inorganic sulfur compounds (thiocyanic acid and thiourea); from organic chemistry come: vinyl compounds, toluene, toluidines and a range of organosulfur com- pounds (thiazoles, isothiazoles, benzothiazoles, organic thiocyanates and isocyanates, thioles, sulfides, polysul- fides, thioglycolic acid, thiophene and benzothiophene); from application technology come: textile additives (102 p.), nonwovens, inks and other writing fluids, separating agents, drying agents, drying oils; from the area of raw ma- terials come: composites, clay and clay minerals, pottery; then vitamins (108 p.), veterinary medicines, tri- and di- arylmethane dyestuffs, peat. Then come two articles of par- ticular topicality, namely thermo- and photoelectricity (28 p.) and the saccharification of starch and cellulose- containing materials (42 p.). Both these articles are con- cerned with topics touching on possible future forms of en-

[*] Cf. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 23 (1984) 255.

Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 23 (1984) No. 7 536