ON THE OCCURRENCE OF NICOTINIC ACID IN 



RICE BRAN 



U. SUZUKI AND S. MATSUNAGA 

 (Agricultural College, Imperial University of Tokyo, Japan) 



One kilo of fat-free rice bran was extracted with hot alcohol 

 (80-85 per Cent.). The alcoholic extract was greatly concentrated 

 by evaporation, diluted with water, and shaken with ether for the 

 removal of fat, etc. The residual aqueous liquid, after evaporation 

 of the ether, was treated with sulfuric acid (total, 3 per cent.) and 

 precipitated with phosphotungstic acid. After barium decomposi- 

 tion of the precipitate, in the customary manner, about i gram of 

 nicotinic acid (picrate) was isolated. The free acid, and the copper 

 as well as the platinic-chlorid double salts, were also prepared and 

 identified. Analytic data are appended. 



A SUMMARY OF THE ANALYTIC PERCENTAGE DATA 



Picrate, CeHsNOz • CeHsNaOi 



Calculated . 

 Found . . . . 



40.91 



40.45 

 40.68 



H 



2.27 

 2.41 

 2.51 



N 



15-91 

 16.50 

 16.19 



Picric acid 



65.06 

 65-50 



Cu 



Pt 



This appears to be the first time that nicotinic acid has been 

 detected in vegetable matter, although Jahns,^ and Schulze and 

 Frankfurt^ have found trigonellin (the methyl-betain Compound of 

 nicotinic acid) in plants, and Schreiner and Shorey^ have identified, 

 in humus soils, picolin carboxylic acid (a homolog of nicotinic 

 acid). 



'Jahns: Ber. d. deut. ehem. Gesell, 1885, xviii, p. 2518; 1887, xx, p. 2840. 



^Schulze and Frankfurt: Ibid., 1894, xxvii, p. 769; Biochemical Bulletin, 

 1912, ii, p. 18. 



'Schreiner and Shorey: Bull. 53, U. S. Dept. of Agric, p. 28 (1909). 



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