ISTew York Agricultural Experiment Station. 123 



pound. Levene^ describes a semi-crystalline barium salt which 

 corresponds to a tetra-barium phytate. Vorbrodt" mentions a crys- 

 talline barium salt obtained by partially neutralizing phytic acid 

 with barium hydroxide and evaporating in vacuum, to which he 

 assigns the formula Ci2H26046Ba7Pii. Although crystalline, this com- 

 pound was undoubtedly impure. By neutralizing the mother-liquor 

 from the above with barium hydroxide he obtained an amorphous 

 precipitate of the composition C 5.75 per ct., H 0.77 per ct., Ba 

 52.97 per ct., P 11.60 per ct. This corresponds approximately with 

 a hexa-barium phytate. 



Of the several salts mentioned in this paper some were obtained 

 from commercial phytin and from an organic-phosphorus magnesium 

 compound by precipitating with barium chloride and barium hydrox- 

 ide; others were prepared from previously purified phytic acid. 

 These products will be more fully described in the experimental part. 



The tri-barium phytate, C6H12O9 [(P03H)2Ba]3, is obtained pure as 

 an amorphous white powder by repeatedly precipitating barium 

 phytate in . 5 per ct. hydrochloric acid with a like volume of alcohol. 

 It may also be obtained in crystalline form by dissolving the amor- 

 phous salt in a 10 per ct. solution of phytic acid in which it is very 

 soluble and from which it again slowly crystallizes out on standing 

 at ordinary temperature. 



A penta-barium phytate, C6Hi4027P6Ba5, is obtained when a solu- 

 tion of the tri-barium phytate in 0.5 per ct. hydrochloric acid is 

 neutralized with barium hydroxide and then made faintly acid with 

 aoetic acid. 



The penta-barium ammonium phytate, C6Hi2027P6Ba5(NH4)2, is 

 obtained when the above mentioned amorphous tri-barium salt is 

 digested with dilute ammonia. 



The penta-magnesium ammonium phytate, C6Hi2027P6Mg5(NH4)2, 

 is thrown down as a white amorphous precipitate when excess of 

 magnesia mixture is added to an aqueous solution of phytic acid, or 

 when ammonium phytate is precipitated with magnesia mixture. 



A tetra-cupric di-calcium phytate, C6Hi2027P6Cu4Ca2, in nearly 

 pure form is obtained when a slightly acid solution of calcium 

 ammonium phytate is precipitated with excess of copper acetate. 

 If the magnesium ammonium phytate is precipitated under the 

 same conditions an impure compound is obtained which contains 

 about 1 per ct. Mg, 0.6 per ct. N, 34 per ct. Cu and 15.6 per ct. P. 

 No effort was made to obtain these salts pure. It was only desired 

 to find out to what extent other bases were removed when precipi- 

 tating with copper acetate. 



Starkenstein^ claims that commercial phytin always contains free 

 inosite together with inorganic phosphates and that merely drying 

 the substance at 100° C. causes nearly complete decomposition into 

 inorganic phosphate and free inosite. 



That phytin is so easily decomposed seemed very improbable, as 

 several months' work on the substance has shown that it is relatively 



1 Biochem. Ztschr. 16: 399. 



^ Ameiger Akad. Wiss. Krakau 1910, Series A: 414. 



* Biochem. Ztschr. 30: 59. 



