4 Fractionation of Phosphotungstic Acid Prccipitate 



in the usual way. A curative fraction was obtained which, in both 

 cases, yielded small quantities of crystallin substance, melting above 

 200° C, which was very likely nicotinic acid. 



LiME-juiCE. Nothing definitely crystalHn was obtained from 

 lime- Juice. 



In the same year ( 1912) Suzuki, Shimamura and Odake (5) pub- 

 lished a very interesting paper on the chemistry of rice-poHshings. 

 Their method of isolating the active principle was as follows : The 

 rice-poHshings were first extracted with petroleum ether, to remove 

 the fat, and then with boihng alcohol. The evaporated alc. extracts 

 were diluted with 3 percent sulfuric acid sol. and precipitated with 

 phosphotungstic acid. The precipitate, after decomposition with 

 baryta, yielded a fraction which these authors called Rohoryzanin I. 

 This fraction, after hydrolysis with weak acid, gave two acids : 

 a-acid of the formula, C10H8NO4, and /?-acid of the formula, 

 CigHieNgOg ; also, nicotinic acid, cholin and glucose. Rohorysanin 

 I was purified by precipitation with tannic acid.. This precipitate, 

 after decomposition, yielded Rohoryzanin IL To the latter, picric 

 acid was added, under conditions that excluded the precipitation of 

 nicotinic acid, and a picrate was obtained which was called oryzanin 

 picrate. This picrate was crystallized, by evaporation from acetone, 

 in small, yellow-brown needles. The authors claimed that very 

 small quantities of the decomposed picrate possessed strong curative 

 action. 



I repeated this work very carefully but was not able to confirm 

 it. Neither were the a- and ^-acids detected, nor was a curative 

 picrate obtained. On the contrary, it was found that the vitamine 

 was not precipitated by picric acid. It was hoped that by using 

 large quantities of rice-polishings positive results could be obtained. 

 In the first instance 380 k. of rice-polishings were used and the 

 method carried out exactly as described in my first paper on rice- 

 polishings. The results have been published (6) ; and, recently, all 

 the various fractions have been carefully re-examined in coUa- 

 boration with Mr. Drummond (7). In another case an extract 

 from 620 k. of rice-polishings was worked up. This extract was 

 hydrolyzed with acid previous to fractionation. In both cases a 

 most careful inquiry failed to detect any new chemical substance 



