284 Mary Davies Swartz, 



locust {Gleditschia tri acanthus), Goret (179) found the albumen to 

 yield 66-70 per cent galactose and 22-23 per cent mannose; he has 

 shown, in fact, that the carbohydrate reserve of almost all seeds with 

 horny albumen consists largely of a mixture of mannans and galac- 

 tans.i 



GALACTANASES IN THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 



The hydrolysis of the paragalactan of lupine seeds during germina- 

 tion was first observed by Schulze and his co-workers. That ordi- 

 nary diastatic enzymes do not form sugar from the para-galactan of 

 Lupinus hirsutus was demonstrated by Schvilze and Castoro (218). 

 Ptyalin, pancreatin, malt diastase and"taka" diastase, will, however, 

 in the course of 5 or 6 days' digestion at 35^0° C. render this carbo- 

 hydrate soluble in water to the following extent: 



Per cent. Per cent. 



Malt diastase 38 Ptyalin 40 



Taka diastase 35 Pancreatin 15 



Griiss (184) has made exhaustive microchemical investigations upon 

 the germinating date endosperm, in which he has been able to observe 

 the solution of the galactans by enzymes developed during germina- 

 tion. Bourquelot and Herissey (174) find a soluble enzyme hydrolyz- 

 ing galactan,- produced by the germinating embryos of the seeds of 

 the carob, Nux vomica, fenugrec and luzerne. Shellenberg (208), 

 studying the action of moulds on hemicelluloses, found at least four 

 different ferments showing considerable specificity in their action; 

 seeds of Lupinus hirsutus (containing paragalactan) were attacked 

 by most of these moulds {Mucor neglectus, Mucor piriforme, Rhizopus 

 nigricans, Thamnidium elegans, Penicillium glaucum). Similarly, 

 Herissey (187) found galactose produced from manno-galactans by 

 Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus fuscus; Saiki (205) obtained sugar 

 from Irish moss by digesting it with inulase prepared from Aspergillus 

 niger and Penicillium glaucum; and with "taka" diastase prepared 

 from another mould, Eurotium oryzae. 



Little is known of the action of bacteria upon galactans. Gran 

 (182) found sugar produced from agar-agar by Bacillus gelaticus, 

 through the action of an enzyme which he calls " gelase." Saiki (105), 



iCf. Mannans, p. 283; for a further discussion of the occurrence of Galactans see 

 V. Lippmann, Chemie der Zuckerarten, Vol. I, pp. 686-697. 

 2Cf. Mannans, p. 284. 



