Cook: Olneya Beans 



331 



seems to have been grown rather 

 extensively as a subculture under larger 

 forest trees in tropical districts of 

 Central America. Most of the tree 

 products are perishable, and the time 



required for trees to come into bearing is 

 another reason for their not being 

 popular among primitive peoples, who 

 seldom cultivate the same land con- 

 tinuously for more than a few seasons. 



The Sweetest Leaf Known 



Several years ago a report ran through 

 the press, originating in Asuncion, Para- 

 guay, to the effect that there was a 

 plant which grew wild on the prairies 

 there, by the name of "Kaa Hee," 

 Eupatorium rehaudianum (correctly de- 

 termined later as Stevia rehaudiana) 

 which had a substance in it 180 times as 

 sweet as sugar. This report startled the 

 sugar cane and sugar beet growers all 

 over the world, and their fears were not 

 allayed until it was discovered that the 

 sweet substance was a glycerine and not 

 a true sugar. Only the tiniest leaf 

 fragment at that time reached Washing- 

 ton, and all efforts to secure the seeds of 

 this interesting composite have until 

 recently failed, but several ounces of 

 the dried leaves and a small amount of 

 seed have been received by the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, through the Ameri- 

 can consul, and they have aroused a 

 keen interest in all who have tasted 

 them. A fragment a quarter of an inch 

 square is as intensely sweet as sac- 

 charine. There is today, so much dis- 

 cussion among dietitians as to the effects 

 upon the health of the excessive use of 

 cane sugar that the whole question of 

 gratifying our most unusual taste for 

 sweets is one deserving serious con- 

 sideration. This is, as Professor Blar- 



ingham, of the Pasteur Institute, re- 

 marks, the age of sugar, "La siecle de 

 Sucre," but whether the fashion for 

 sweets will be outgrown is a question for 

 the dietitians to struggle with. Professor 

 Osterhout, of Harvard, has shown that 

 sugar increases the electrical permea- 

 bility of the protoplasmic membrane of 

 the cell, but just what inference is to be 

 drawn from the discovery is a question. 

 Having possibly a bearing upon this 

 same problem, the following fact re- 

 cently called to. attention is worthy of 

 publication : 



"In southern Nigeria, according to 

 Mr. A. H. Kirby, Assistant Director of 

 Agriculture at Ibadan, there is a fruit 

 tree or shrub known as the "Agbayun" 

 {Synsepalum dulciferum), the slightly 

 sweetish fruits of which, when eaten, 

 have the peculiar property of making 

 the sourest-tasting substances such as 

 limes, lemons, unripe fruits, or vinegar' 

 which are eaten within twelve hours or 

 so afterward, seem intensely sweet. 



Here would appear to be two sub- 

 stances, both worthy of investigation 

 from the modem standpoint of foods. 

 Seeds of both of these plants have been 

 imported by the Office of Foreign Seed 

 and Plant Introduction, — U. S. De- 

 partment OF Agriculture. 



