Ali-esterase of Rabbit Polymorphonuclear Leucocytes

Abstract

RECENTLY, Sturge and Whittaker¹ reported on the relative rates of hydrolysis of a series of straight-chain aliphatic esters by the aliphatic esterase (ali-esterase of Richter and Croft²) of horse plasma. With several notable exceptions, acetates were hydrolysed more rapidly than the corresponding propionate or n-butyrate (that is, the optimal number of carbon atoms in the n-acyl group was usually two) and n-butyl esters were hydrolysed more rapidly than the corresponding n-propyl or n-amyl esters (that is, the optimal number of carbon atoms in the n-alkyl group was usually four).