BEHAVIOUR OF PENTOSANES OF SEEDS IN GERMINATION.
The authors have investigated the germination of barley, wheat, and peas, in absence of light, and generally with exclusion of assimilating activity, to determine whether the oxidation with attendant loss of weight, which is the main chemical feature of the germination proper, affects the pentosanes of the seeds. The following are typical of the quantitative results obtained, which are stated in absolute weights, and not percentages.
| -- | Original seed | Malt or germinated product | Pentosane in | |
| A | B | A | B | |
| Barley | 500.00 | 434.88 | 39.58 | 40.38 |
| " | 500.00 | 442.26 | 40.52 | 41.17 |
| Peas | 300.00 | 286.60 | 15.25 | 15.97 |
The authors conclude generally that there is a slight absolute increase in the pentosanes, and that the pentosanes do not belong to those reserve materials which undergo destructive oxidation during germination.
In this they confirm the previously published results of De Chalmot, Cross and Bevan, and Gotze and Pfeiffer.
UEBER DEN GEHALT DER BAUMWOLLE AN PENTOSAN.
H. Suringar and B. Tollens (Ztschr. angew. Chem., 1897, I).
PENTOSANE CONSTITUENTS OF COTTON.
(p. 290) It has been stated by Link and Voswinkel (Pharm. Centralhalle, 1893, 253), that raw cotton yields 'wood gum' as a product of hydrolysis. The authors were unable to obtain any pentoses as products of acid hydrolysis of raw cotton, and traces only of furfural-yielding carbohydrates. They conclude that raw cotton contains no appreciable quantity of pentosane.