JOINAI OF AGRICCITIIRAL RESEARCH 



Vol. XVI Washington, D. C, February 17, 191 9 No. 7 



CYANOGENESIS IN ANDROPOGON SORGHUM 



By C. T. DowELL 

 Chemist, Oklahoma Agricultural Experiment Station 



INTRODUCTION 



It is a prevalent belief among farmers and also among certain writers 

 on the subject of sorghums (Andropogon sorghum) that when the sorghum 

 is cut and cured it is no longer poisonous to stock. While this is a strong 

 belief among farmers and is stated as a fact by certain writers and inves- 

 tigators, yet there are other writers and investigators who have claimed 

 that curing has no effect on the power of sorghum to poison stock. In 

 fact, the literature on this subject is quite conflicting in its statements. 

 For instance, Churchill (jY states that sorghum is rendered safe for feed- 

 ing by curing. Turrill (8) states that in curing the sorghum is rendered 

 harmless. On the other hand, Schroder and Dammann (7) and also 

 Brunnich (2) claim that the sorghum is not rendered harmless in the 

 curing process. Furthermore, the well-known fact is recalled in this 

 connection that linseed cake and certain varieties of beans are known to 

 contain hydrocyanic (prussic) acid in the form of glucosid. Peters, 

 Slade, and Avery (6) are not sure whether sorghum is rendered suitable 

 for feeding by curing, and stated that the subject should be further inves- 

 tigated. 



During this past summer reports came to this Station through the 

 newspapers of several cases of poisoning caused by sorghum which had 

 been cut for some time. This information, the fact that several inquiries 

 were made by farmers as to whether or not it would be safe to feed sor- 

 ghum which had been cut during dry weather, and the lack of definite 

 information in the literature caused me to take up the present investi- 

 gation. 



There are several questions that should be investigated. The first and 

 probably the most important is to determine whether or not the glucosid ■ 

 is decomposed and the prussic acid liberated when the sorghum is cured; 

 second, to determine whether or not the enzym become-s inactive in the 

 process of curing as claimed by Peters, Slade, and Avery (6); tkird, to 

 determine the effect of the presenoe of substances such as glucose and 



' Reference is made by number (italic) to " Literature cited, p. i8i." 



Journal of Agricultural Research, Vol. XVI, No. 7 



Washington, D. C. Feb. 17, 1919 



rk Key No. Okla.-i 



(175) 



