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Updated: Oct 9, 2026

Free Radicals in Chemical Biology: from Chemical Behavior to Biomarker Development
Published on: April 15, 2013
Abiotic synthesis of guanine with high-temperature plasma
S Miyakawa1, K Murasawa, K Kobayashi
1Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology, Faculty of Engineering, Yokohama National University, Yokohama 240-8501, Japan. SMIYAKAWA@aol.com
Abstract:
The origin of guanine has been unknown, though there are some reports concerning its abiotic synthesis. We show here that guanine, as well as uracil and cytosine, are synthesized from a 90%N2-10%CO-H2O gas mixture via a complex organic product produced with the high-temperature and rapid quenching technique. This result implies that a large amount of complex organic matter including precursors of bioorganic compounds might have been produced on the primitive earth after cometary impacts.
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