Separation of pineal extracts by gelfiltration. IV. Isolation, location and identification from sheep pineals of three indoles, identical with 5-hydroxytryptophol, 5-methoxytryptophol and melatonin.

Aqueous extracts of sheep pineal bodies were separated on Sephadex G-25. A low molecular Sephadex G-25 fraction F4 was filtrated on Sephadex G-10. Several distinct peaks could be detected showing excitation and fluorescence maxima resembling those of indoles. A thinlayer chromatography study revealed that one Sephadex G-10 peak contained a spot identical with that of synthetic 5-methoxytryptophol, another a spot with the same Rf-values in different solvents as synthetic 5-hydroxytryptophol, while from a third peak a substance was isolated identical with synthetic melatonin. Mass spectra of the isolated compounds were recorded. These results are compared with those of previous isolation studies.