Polyamines: An Introduction

Although receiving little attention in biochemical and physiological textbooks, the polyamines have a long history and have accumulated a considerable literature (for reviews see refs. 1 –11 ). In 1678 Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (12 ) described crystals that formed in samples of human semen that had been left to cool. It is now clear that these crystals were spermine phosphate. The phenomenon was rediscovered several times during the next 200 years, in each case the discoverer apparently unaware of what had gone before. By the end of the 19th century there were ten different names for these crystals.