where to find obscure compounds

[khofmann at biomed.biolan.uni-koeln.de]

In article <1993May13.164210.20079 at midway.uchicago.edu>, rjl4 at quads.uchicago.edu (robert joseph litt) writes:
>I am posting this for someone in my lab.  We would like to know where
>to find a particular compound.  The most recent literature reference
>we could find was from 1967.  The compound is deoxythymidine
>3',5'-diphosphate.  This is a specific and potent inhibitor of
>micrococcal nuclease.  In general, if one would like to find
>commercial suppliers of obscure chemicals and compounds, where would
>one look?  Other than scouring the catalogues on the shelf, is there
>some centralized resource - book, catalogue, database - whatever -
>that can be consulted?
>
>Responses by e-mail or posting would be appreciatted.
>
>Thanks
>Bob Litt

I think a possible method (at least for not too obscure compunds) is the
following:
Make a search request in a literature database (CC, Medline etc.) for the
compound of interest and search for papers in which the compound of interest
has been used. Have a look on the 'materials and methods' part of the paper
and see where the authors have got the compound from.

I have to admit that in most cases when I used this approach on compounds
not present in the catalogues of the major lab chemical vendors the
above method also failed, resulting in phrases like:

The used 3,3,3,6',6',6'-Hexahyperidinium Holmiumdiazaquonium Hydrate was a
generous gift of Dr. Hsien Hong Wu who is working in the lab next door
(quote slightly changed)

Or perhaps:

3,3,3,6',6',6'-Hexahyperidinium Holmiumdiazaquonium Hydrate was isolated
from Bacillus Thuringiensis Strain HLS-50a according to the procedures
of Wu(1)

which you possibly won't like to repeat for your work.

But I have heard of cases where this approach worked, so why not try it!

Good Luck!
            kay