On account of the high dissociation constant of barbituric acid as compared with that of the 5, 5-dialkylbarbituric acids, Wood and Anderson'concluded that the unsubstituted barbituric acid exists in solution in the tautomeric enol form representing a migration of hydrogen from the methylene to an adjacent carbonyl. As a further proof of this structure they synthesized the sodium salt of barbituric acid from ureidomalonamide and sodium hydroxide, the ...
