Picric acid converted it to acetylsalicylic acid, i.e., aspirin, to keep it from the Allies. See Great Phenol Plot. At the time, phenol was obtained from coal as a co-product of coke ovens and the manufacture of gas for gas lighting. Laclede Gas reports being asked to expand production of phenol (and toluene) to support the war effort. Both Monsanto and Dow Chemical undertook manufacture of synthetic phenol in 1915. Dow was the leading producer. Dow describes picric acid as “the main battlefield explosive used by the French. Large amounts [of phenol] also went to Japan, where it was made into picric
Orotic acid Orotic acid Orotic acid is a heterocyclic compound and an acid; it is also known as pyrimidinecarboxylic acid. Historically it was believed to be part of the vitamin B complex and was called vitamin B, but it is now known that it is not a vitamin. The compound is manufactured in the body via a mitochondrial enzyme, dihydroorotate dehydrogenase or a cytoplasmic enzyme of pyrimidine synthesis pathway. It is sometimes used as a mineral carrier in some dietary supplements (to increase their bioavailability), most commonly for lithium orotate. Dihydroorotate is synthesized to orotic acid by the enzyme dihydroorotate dehydrogenase, where