IV 



HYDROLYTIC PROCESSES IN THE GERMINATION OF 



OIL-CONTAINING SEEDS 



Since we mentioned the fact that in the fertilized egg hydro- 

 lytic processes (or at least reactions other than oxidations) 

 take place, and since little >r nothing is known about these 

 reactions in animal eggs, a discussion of the processes occurring 

 in germinating oily seeds may be of interest. As an example, 

 the investigations of Hover with Connstein and Wartenberg 

 may be used. The experiments were carried out by Hoyer. 



If castor beans are ground up with water, and the resulting seed- 

 oil emulsion (seed-milk) is left alone for a few days, there is observed 

 after a time a sudden, rapid increase of the mass of acid, whereby the 

 neutral oil contained in the castor bean is converted into acid and 

 glycerin. This observation, made for the first time some four years 

 ago, was the starting-point for the investigation of the decomposition 

 of fat by means of the lipolytic ferments contained in plant seeds, and 

 especially in those of the castor bean. This ferment, which has been 

 worked at ever since from several sides, has been used successfully as a 

 technical fat-splitting process. 



On the establishment of the conditions mentioned, i.e., the grind- 

 ing up of the seeds, the fat-splitting effect of the castor bean ferment 

 does not set in for some time, but then it occurs suddenly. We recog- 

 nized the reason for the appearance of this sudden action in the fact 

 that an intensification of the decomposition of the fat only occurs 

 when a sufficient mass of acid is present. For the fat-splitting effect 

 of the castor bean can be at once produced, if at the start a certain 

 small quantity of acid or the salt of an acid be added to the mass. 

 This amount differs according to the kind of acid. In a later publica- 

 tion of mine the amounts of these acids have been accurately deter- 

 mined; whence it appears that of the acids examined, butyric allows 

 the widest latitude with regard to the quantity employed, whilst sul- 

 phuric and oxalic, for example, require a very close adherence to 

 their proportionate quantities. 1 



1 Hoyer, " Ueber fermentative Fettspaltung," Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 

 L, 414, 1907. 



39 



