1912] ■ Ernst Winterstein 3 



seeds in some sort of combination with proteins. In this connection 

 he investigated the plant cholesterols, or phytosterols. 



Schulze then began his thorough studies of the carbohydrates 

 and nitrogen-free reserve materials in plants. A paper entitled: 

 "Untersuchungen über die stickstofffreien Reservestoffe der Samen 

 von Lupinus Intens und über die Umwandlung derselben während 

 des Keimungsprozesses," was given a prize by the Königlichen 

 Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften in Göttingen. 



In this connection Schulze studied the constituents of cell mem- 

 branes in plants. He showed that the walls of various plant-cells 

 contain carbohydrates which resemble cellulose to a certain extent 

 but differ from it by dissolving easily in warm dilute Solutions of 

 acids and alkalis. These cell-wall constituents proved to be xylans, 

 arabans, galactans, and mannans. They play the part of food 

 reserves in seeds. Schulze called them " hemi-celluloses." He 

 showed, further, that ordinary cellulose on hydrolysis yields other 

 glucoses besides dextrose. Stachys tubers were found to contain 

 stachyose, a tetrasaccharid. All these researches yielded data and 

 experience that proved useful to Schulze in his discussions and de- 

 velopment of analytical methods for phytochemical research. 



The role of asparagin and glutamin in the protein metabolism 

 and synthesis in plants greatly interested Schulze to the end of his 

 life. Although he was not able fully to explain the process of 

 protein synthesis, he made fundamental contributions to the subject. 

 He clarified our knowledge of protein metabolism in seedlings. 

 What chemist or biologist has not heard of the investigations which 

 were begun in 1876, and whose results were usually published in Prus- 

 sian agricultural year books and also in the Zeitschrift für physio- 

 logische Chemie? Even in his second paper on the subject, in 1878, 

 Schulze showed the importance of the characteristic composition of 

 etiolated seedlings and their high asparagin content. He concluded 

 from his observations that the protein decomposition products do 

 not persist, in seedlings, in the proportions in which they were 

 originally produced from protein, hut, that after such protein cleav- 

 age, these nitro genotis suhstances seem to he changed for the most 

 part into asparagin. 



Schulze prepared a great many plant proteins and studied their 



