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Memorial Lecture: Lactose and Lactase—A Historical Perspective

1971; Elsevier BV; Volume: 61; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/s0016-5085(19)33391-8

1528-0012

Norman Kretchmer,

Digestive system and related health

Lactose, as a constituent of milk, was discovered 338 years ago, 1 but its chemical synthesis had to wait approximately 300 more years. 2This disaccharide appears in nature only as a specific product of the mammary gland and thus from an evolutionary viewpoint is approximately 100,000,000 years old.The realization that lactose as well as other carbohydrates could be associated with the pathogenesis of diarrhea was noted approximately 70 years ago. 3Many of the early questions concerning this subject remain unanswered but are still tantalizing to many clinical scientists as evidenced by the amazing proliferation of contemporary literature concerned with lactase and the malabsorption of lactose.However, it is the purpose of this paper to review some previous investigations as well as those observations and philosophies derived from our own experience.Lactose, a disaccharide, Saccharum lactis (fig.1), is synthesized in the mam-