384 Chemical Constitution of Starch [June-September 



sults have been correctly interpreted, the starch molecule may be 

 correctly represented by their proposed configuration (Fig. i) : 



81 f 6 a 05 



(60 05h ^b)... 6 6-(Ci2H,oOg) 



(«O o'h "O)- •• O O • (C12 H20 O9) 



X)=DEXTRAN 

 Jf=MALTAN 



Fig. I. 



This structure has lately been attacked by Ling," who claims 

 that the hydrolysis of starch by malt diastase does not produce 

 eighty percent of maitose; maltodextrins being present. This 

 Statement, however, due to the great amount of evidence in favor 

 of the production of eighty percent of maitose by the action of malt 

 enzyme on starch, is open to qiiestion. Ling prefers to regard the 

 starch formula as (CcHjoOs)« — (n-i H2O), similar to the 

 (CßHioOg)« + HoO proposed by Kiliani,^^ inasmuch as he con- 

 siders carbohydrates to be derived f rom monoses by a series of con- 

 densations with the elimination of water. This view is at the pres- 

 ent time quite general. As the proposed starch structure of Brown 

 and Miliar does not allow for this one molecule of water, their 

 formula may, of course, possess other weak points. 



In the year previous to the publication of the last mentioned 

 work there appeared a paper by Johnson^*^ in which he proposed a 

 molecular formula for starch. Experimental evidence is lacking, 



14 Ling: Proc. 7th Internat. Congr. Appl. Chem., 1910, viB, p. 123. 



15 Kiliani : Chem. Zeit., 1908, xxxii, p. 366. 



16 Johnson : Jour. Chem. Soc., 1898, Ixxiii, p. 490. 



