140 Report of Department of Animal Industry of the 



in 100 cc. of water acidified with 10 cc. 5/N hydrochloric acid, was 

 boiled over a free flame for one hour. After cooling, barium chloride 

 was added and the barium phytate precipitated by the addition of 

 alcohol. The substance was twice purified by precipitating its 

 hydrochloric acid solution with alcohol. On analysis, results were 

 obtained which showed that the substance was a pure tri-barium 

 phytate, the salt which is always obtained under the above conditions 

 of precipitation. 



In view of this relative stability of the phytin molecule it was 

 thought that the pyrophosphoric acid ester referred to above might 

 be more stable than the pyrophosphoric acid in the reaction mixture. 

 Qualitative experiments showed that this was actually the case. 



An aqueous solution of pyrophosphoric acid, acidified with hydro- 

 chloric acid and a solution of the above inosite-pyrophosphoric acid 

 reaction-mixture, also acidified with hydrochloric acid, were boiled 

 for one hour. Some barium chloride and a like volume of alcohol 

 were then added. The solution containing only pyrophosphoric acid 

 gave no precipitate, while, before boiling, alcohol produced at once 

 a white precipitate of barium pyrophosphate. The solution con- 

 taining the inosite-pyrophosphoric acid reaction mixture gave a 

 white flocculent precipitate, the barium salt of the new ester. 



As the excess of the pyrophosphoric acid was present as ortho- 

 phosphoric acid after boiling it did not interfere with the purifi- 

 cation of the compound by the dilute acid alcohol method. 



By acting on dry inosite (one mol.) with dry pyrophosphoric acid 

 (six mol.) at a temperature of 200°-220° C, another new pyrophos- 

 phoric ester was obtained. After boiling, as before, with dilute 

 hydrochloric acid and purifying as the barium salt this product was 

 found to be a di-inosite tri-pyrophosphoric acid ester; that is, its 

 molecule was evidently made up of two molecules of dipyrophos- 

 phoric acid esters of inosite joined through one molecule of pyro- 

 phosphoric acid and, accordingly, it corresponds with the following 

 formula: 



C6Hc(OH)303 =[P203(OH)3]2 



>0 

 P=^OH 



C6H6(OH)303 =[P203(OH)3]2 



It is evident therefore that complex compounds such as phytic 

 acid is supposed to be cannot be formed at elevated temperatures. 



