CAROTIN, THE PRINCIPAL YELLOW PIGMENT OF MILK FAT 405 



it small quantities of xanthophyll pigment.. It is possible, however, 

 that these xanthophylls are present in the fat which may be extracted 

 along with the carotin of the corpus luteum. 



THE PIGMENTS OF THE WAXY SECRETIONS IN THE EARS AND 

 ON THE SKIN OF JERSEY COWS. 



It was stated in the introduction that the secretions of the skin 

 of Jersey and Guernsey cows is often considered as indicating the 

 ability of these breeds to secrete yellow milk fat. It was accordingly 

 thought that a brief investigation of this pigment would be of inter- 

 est and possibly of some scientific value. 



The yellow skin secretion of Jersey cows is especially abundant 

 in the ears. A few grams of the yellow waxy matter was accord- 

 ingly scraped from the ears of several pure bred Jersey cows and 

 the wax macerated with ether, which readily dissolved away the 

 pigment and some fatty matter, giving a bright yellow solution. The 

 ether solution was concentrated to low volume and diluted with 

 about loo c. c. of 2 per cent alcoholic potash and the solution boiled 

 on the steam bath for 30 minutes. The pigment was extracted from 

 the soap solution with ether in the usual way. The extraction of 

 the pigment was easy and complete. The ether solution was freed 

 from alkali as usual and then diluted with some petroleum ether. The 

 slightly cloudy solution which resulted was washed with water until 

 clear and evaporated into absolute alcohol. The alcohol was now 

 diluted with petroleum ether (b. p. 30 to 50 C) and water added 

 sufficient to cause separation. Several extractions with petroleum 

 ether resulted in the division of the original pigment into a major 

 petroleum ether soluble pigment and a minor pigment which could 

 not be extracted from 80-90 per cent alcohol with petroleum ether. 



The petroleum ether pigment gave a red orange carbon bisulphide 

 solution showing the carotin absorption bands: 



I. 224243 



II. 263287 



III. 303320 



and a beautiful rose colored unadsorbed zone in the CaCO 3 chromoto- 

 gramm. 



The 80 per cent alcohol soluble pigment which amounted tc two 

 or three per cent of the entire pigment, gave a yellow-orange car- 

 bon bisulphide solution. The solution showed only one absorption 

 band however, the other bands being obscure. 



I. 232254 



