1915] Charles J. Robinson and J. Howard Mueller 10 1 



much larger percentage of organic-phosphorus extractives than 

 most other materials so far examined, and probably is the best 

 source of phytin and phytic acid for further investigations. 



We have repeated Patten and Hart's work. Their so-called 

 tri-barium phytate has been prepared from wheat bran, with care 

 to insure the absence of inorganic phosphates by means of the 

 method recommended by Anderson, viz., repeated Solution of the 

 Salt in dilute hydrochloric acid sol. and reprecipitation with alcohol. 

 With Anderson's new method,^ we have been able to prepare this 

 barium salt in crystalline form and identical in properties with that 

 obtained by him from cotton-seed meal, oats and corn, but corre- 

 sponding more closely in composition with the formula, CeHigOj*- 

 PgBaa, than with Anderson's formula C6Hi2024P6Ba3. Our data 

 leave no question as to the presence of substances in wheat-bran 

 which yield, by the usual treatment to be described in the experi- 

 mental part, a substance very similar to phytic acid, but apparently 

 having the composition represented by the formula C6H24024P6- 

 From his crystalline tri-barium salt from cotton-seed meal, oats 

 and corn, Anderson obtained an acid to which he ascribed the for- 

 mula, C6H18O24P6. Hence, both in the case of the barium salt 

 and the free acid, our Compounds appear to contain six more hydro- 

 gen atoms to the molecule ; while in carbon, barium and phosphorus 

 Contents, they agree very well with Anderson's Compounds. 



In comparing the results of the analyses, the method used in 

 combustion must be taken into consideration. It is a well known 

 fact that, in the combustion of organic Compounds containing 

 phosphorus, the phosphorus is converted into metaphosphoric acid, 

 HPO3, which remains as a glossy coating in the boat, and may 

 occlude more or less carbon. Anderson states that in decomposing 

 his crystalline barium salts, it was necessary to burn a second time 

 with chromic acid, in order to insure combustion of all the carbon, 

 but that this was unnecessary with the amorphous barium salts. 

 Since he does not say that he burned the free acid with chromic 

 acid, we presume he did not do so. It is inevitable, if t'his is true, 

 that his hydrogen analyses gave low results for phytic acid. It is 

 a noteworthy fact that his formula shows six atoms less in the 



6 Anderson : Jour. Biol. Chem., 1914, xvii, p. 160. 



