It has attracted much attention because of its optical properties and also because of recent investigations which show that certain inositol derivatives are connected to the mechanisms for the transmission of information between living cells, a process which is referred to as "cell-signaling." For example, it has been disclosed recently that
inositol-1,4,5-triphosphate, which is a decomposition product from inositol phospholipid and diacyglycerol, plays an important role as "second messengers" in the cell-signaling mechanism.