THE ORGANIC PHOSPHORUS COMPOUNDS OF 



WHEAT-BRAN 



CHARLES J. ROBINSON and J. HOWARD MUELLER 

 {Lahor atory of Physiological Chetnistry, University of Louisville, Ky.) 



Introduction. The organic-phosphorus materials, or phytins, 

 obtained by alcoholic precipitation of aqueous or dilute acid ex- 

 tracts from various sources, are not identical, but ultimate analyses 

 show a fair degree of similarity. Thus, the phosphorus content 

 varies between 14 and 17 percent, and there are varying propor- 

 tions of magnesium, potassium and calcium. There has been pre- 

 pared, also, from the phytins from many sources, the free phytic 

 acid, corresponding to the formula CsHgPoOg (anhydro-oxy- 

 methylene phosphoric acid, Posternak),^ or C6H24P6O27 (Neu- 

 berg,^ Starkenstein^). 



In the case of the material extracted from wheat bran, how- 

 ever, there has been difference of opinion regarding its identity 

 with phytin and its ability to yield phytic acid. Patten and Hart* 

 claimed to have obtained an acid containing 10.63 percent of carbon, 

 3.38 percent of hydrogen, and 25.98 percent of phosphorus, figures 

 agreeing very well with the formula C6H24O27P6. They therefore 

 called their product phytic acid. Anderson,^ on the other hand, 

 was unable to obtain such a Compound, and ascribed Patten and 

 Hart's supposed error to contamination with inorganic phosphates 

 and phosphoric acid. Anderson obtained his material by a method 

 of procedure different from that used by Patten and Hart, a fact 

 that may explain the divergent results. 



It was with a view to Clearing up this matter that the work 

 described in this paper was undertaken. Wheat-bran contains a 



1 Posternak : Rev. gen. de bot., 1900, xii, pp. 5 and 65. 



2 Neuberg : Biochem. Zeitschr., 1908, ix, pp. 551 and 557. 



3 Starkenstein : Ibid., 191 1, xxx, p. 56. 



* Patten and Hart: Compt. rend. de l'acad. des sei., 1903, cxxxvii, Nos. 3, 

 5 and 8. 



5 Anderson : Jour. Biol. Chem., 1912, xii, p. 447. 



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