BACTERIOLOGICAL, PHYSIOLOGICAL, ETC. 143 BACTERIOLOGICAL, PHYSIOLOGICAL, ETC. physiological and Chemical Valuation of Adrenaline Solutions. J. S. White. (Pbrm. J . , 1917, 98, 159-16O.)-Adrenaline solutions are very liable to undergo oxidation, with consequent loss of activity; the oxidation is accompanied by the development of a pink colour which changes to red and then to brown, and a brown precipitate forms.The solution is suitable for use, although weak, even when it has a red colour, but wTlen the brown coloration appears the solution should be rejected. The only satisfactory means of determining the strength of an adrena- line solution is the physiological method depending on the transitory rise in blood- pressure produced by the intravenous injection of the solution, as compared with the rise in pressure produced by a standard adrenaline solution.The following chemical method may, however, be used to ascertain the approximate strength of such solu- tions; it depends on the pink coloration which is obtained when adrenaline is heated with potassium iodate and hydrochloric acid. Five C.C. of the adrenaline solution are mixed with 5 C.C.of dilute hydrochloric acid (2-5 C.C. N/10 hydrochloric acid in 100 C.C. of water) and 5 C.C. of 0.2 per cent. potassium iodate solution; the mixture is heated nearly to boiling, and the colour observed after fifteen minutes. The standard is prepared by similarly treating 5 C.C. of pure adrenaline solution containing 1 part of the substance in 50,000 parts of water. To test the commercial powdered gland, 0.01 grm.of the sample is treated with the above-mentioned quantities of hydrochloric acid and potassium iodate solution. It may be mentioned that adrena- line solutions have been sold containing sulphurous acid, which, whilst in no way retarding oxidation, prevents the change in colour, so that a casual observation affords no evidence of the value of the solution.w. P. s. Colouring Matter of Red Torulae. A. C. Chapman. (Biochem. J . , 1916, 10, 548.)-Growths on agar of red torula were dried and ground with sand, followed by extraction with chloroform and carbon bisulphide, both of which solvents gave deep red solutions, leaving on evctporation a coloured residue containing fat and some phytosterol. The chloroform solution on exposure to light quickly faded, suggesting that the colouring matter resembled carrotene, and in addition it was insoluble in water, and dissolved in concentrated sulphuric acid with a deep blue colour.A com- parative examination of the absorption spectra of pure carrotene obtained from carrots and the red torula colouring matters revealed important differences, and it must be concluded that the torula either contain some substance in addition to carrotene, or that the colouring matter is a different substance altogether (ANALYST, 1912,37,199,596).H. F. E. H. Evidence of the Existence in Malt of an Enzyme Hydrolysing the Fur- furoids of Barley. J. L. Baker and H. F. E. HuIton. (J. Chem. Soc., 1917,111 and 112,121-130.)-3,i’Urfural was estimated throughout by the authors’ modification (ANALYST, 1916, 41, 244) of FIohil’s method (Chem.Weekbhd, 1910, ‘7, 1057) as eIaborated by Eynon and Lane (hfALYST, 1912,31,41). The furfural and Fehling’s144 ABSTRACT8 OF CHEMICAL PAPERS solution were treated in a boding-water bath for forby minutes under a reflux con- denser, and the cuprous oxide obtained weighed as CuO. Experimental evidence was obtained by vaxious methods that the insoluble furfuroid matter present in brewer% pins was capable of being made to yield a small proportion of soluble fmfural-yielding substances with a reducing action on Fehhg's solution (pntose ~ u g " ~ ) when acted upon by the enzymes in air-dried green malt.It is also shown that excised badey embryos when grown on sand moistened with cane-sugar only increased in weight and Muroid content, while there was transference of insoluble furfuroid matter from the barley endosperm to the embryo when the seeds were allowed to geminate in the ordinary manner, involving the enzymic hydrolysis of the endosperm furfuroids.Pentosana have not previously been shown to be amen- able to the action of a " pentosase." H. F.E. H. Pectic Substances of Plants. S. B. Schryver and D. Hcaynes. (Bimhem. J . , 1916, 10, 539-547.)-The materials extracted comprised turnips, strawbe~es, apples, and rhubarb stems, the h t named giving the most wtisfactory yield. Plant juices, with the exception of that of the apple, contain but little pectinogen, and the great bulk is obtained by a process of extraction with warm 0.5 per cent.ammonium oxalate from the residue remaining after the expression of the juices, followed by concentration of the extract to small bulk and precipitation with acidified alcohol (95 per cent.). The gelatinous precipitate so obtained is washed with alcohol and finally air-dried, when it is obtained as a, granular white powder. The yield from 100 kilos of turnips is 355 grms., which loses about 25 per cent.in the steam- oven. The pectinogen so obtained is a single substance of acidic character, and is somewhat slowly soluble in water, yielding viscous, slightly opalescent solutions which are distinctly acid to phenolphthalein. A solution of pectinogen mde neutral to phenolphthalein by caustic alkalis yields no precipitate on the addition of either dilute acid or a dilute solution of a calcium salt, but if kept in alkaline solution for a short time readily undergoes conversion into another substance, also of acidic character, called " pectin," soluble in alkalis and precipitated from its alkaline solutions by acids as a gel insoluble in water.It -era from pectinogen in being insoluble in water, and by the fact that the solution of its sodium salt gives a gelatinous precipitate with sodium chloride.A solution of pectinogen &o gives a gel when allowed to stand at room temperature with an excess of calcium hydroxide solution. Pectins from the different fruits and vegetables above mentioned have been prepared, and their elementary analyses agree well with the formula G,Ha4016. On distillation with hydrochloric acid, pectinogen yields furfural in such quantity as to indicate that one pemtose group is present in each complex of seventeen carbon atoms.Pectin would not a p p r to be a carbohydrate, but an acid. H. F. E. H. Starch in Brasken Fern. A. E. Shipley. (Pirnes, March 15, 1917.)-The author quotes figures of J. E. Purvis in which the starch content of the rhizomes of PteriS uquiZim is given as varying from 1-7 to 2-3 per cent. As a commercial source of starch this does not compare favourably with the potato, but the raw materialORGANIC ANALYSIS 145 costs nothing and exists in enormous quantities. The starch content of the rhizomes is highest in the spring, but the starch itself is not of a good quality, aad is a light slaty-grey in colour. H. F. E. H.