T E A N B A C T I O N R 



NEW ZEALAND INSTITUTE, 



1910. 



Art. I. — The Chemical Composition of Meat-extract. 

 By A. M. Wright, F.C.S. 



[Read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, 2nd November, 1910.] 



In spite of the fact that meat-extract has been in use as an article of diet 

 since the time of Hippocrates, comparatively little has been known until 

 recently of the chemical composition of this material. A review of the 

 earlier literature on meat-extract shows that the methods of analysis used 

 have been so varied, and in some cases so unreliable, that it is not possible to 

 satisfactorily compare many of the results obtained. The greatest obstacle 

 ill the way of a thorough and careful study of meat-extracts has been the 

 unsatisfactory condition of the analytical methods for determining the 

 nitrogenous constituents upon which much of the value of a meat-extract 

 depends. Recently, however, more exact and uniform analytical procedure 

 has been adopted, and serves as a basis for obtaining data of the composi- 

 tion of this complex material, and for determining the comparative values 

 of this product. 



The object of this investigation was to determine as far as possible the 

 complete chemical composition of meat-extract, and to ascertain which 

 constituents increased and which decreased the commercial value of this 

 material, it having been found that the earlier methods of analysis used 

 in this laboratory did not satisfactorily reveal the differences in composi- 

 tion which could account for the varied value placed upon the extract in 

 the London market, where a consideration of its colour, odour, and taste 

 largely determines the price offered. 



The fact that the complete analyses of New Zealand meat-preparations 

 are not available makes the publication of the results obtained in this in- 

 vestigation desirable. 



In an earlier paper* the author described the methods of analysis used 

 in the study of the composition of a number of extracts, and in the course 

 of this investigation the methods therein described for the determination 

 of moisture, organic matter, mineral salts, chlorine, fat, and total nitrogen 

 were used. The separation of the nitrogen and substances precipitated 

 by 50, 60, and 80 per cent, alcohol has been discarded, as it is now found 



* Journ. Soc. Chem. Ind., 1907, p. 1229. 

 1— Trans. 



