A study of the proteids of the corn or maize kernel.

  • Russell Henry Chittenden
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A study of the proteids of the corn or maize kernel. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    Contributions from the Sheffield Biological Laboratory of Yale University. A STUDY OF THE PROTEIDS OF THE CORN OR MAIZE KERNEL. By R. H. Chittenden, Ph. D., Professor of Physiological Chemistry in Yale University, and Thomas B. Osborne, Pb.D., Chemist at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. The character of the proteids present in the kernel or seed of corn or maize, the most important of American cereals, has up to the present time never been investigated to any great extent. In fact, our knowledge of this subject has been practically limited to the observations of Ritthausen1 concerning “maize fibrin,” a body soluble in alcohol, and to the bare statement made by Th. Weyl3 that the powdered seeds of maize yield to a io-per cent, solution of sodium chloride a globulin-like substance which, after purifica- tion by repeated precipitation with water and re-solution in salt water (io per cent.), coagulates at 750 C. It is a fair presumption, however, judging from the interesting results obtained by Sidney Martin, Vines and other workers among the vegetable proteids, that the proteids of the corn kernel must doubtless be as numerous and complex as those of other seeds already investigated, and this we have indeed found to be the case. In fact, the subject, while more or less fruitful in results, has proved an exceedingly complex one, on account of the large number of different proteids present in the seed, the small quantities present, and the ease with which several of the bodies, especially the globulins, are appa- rently converted into other forms. Again, in view of the probable widespread distribution of the vegetable proteolytic ferments, any study of the vegetable proteids normally present in seed or * Die Eiweifskiirpcr der Getreidearten, Hiilsenfriichte und Olsamen, Bonn, 1872, p. 113.