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National Resources Planning Board 



The preparation of important chemical byproducts 

 from vegetable sources is another very important 

 biochemical field. We have briefly mentioned the ex- 

 traction and study of plant enzymes which has fallen 

 to the work of the biochemist. Equally important is 

 the study of such fruit bj'products as pectin, obtained 

 both from the larger fruits and, oddly, from fungi. The 

 detection, extraction, and preparation of natural resins, 

 gums, oils, fats, soaps, and waxes is an especially im- 

 portant biochemical procedure. Although the syn- 

 thetic plastics industry has displaced the use of some 

 natural gums and resins, there are very many which, 

 either by virtue of natural superioritj', susceptibility to 

 economical production, or both, are destined to remain 

 predominant for many years to come, if not per- 

 manently. The biochemistry of these products, of 

 their production, and of the plant which produces 

 them, are of the highest industrial importance. Chicle, 

 the product of a tough-leaved bush of the tropics, lies 

 at the base of the entire chewing-gum industry, and a 

 suitable artificial substitute has not been found. 

 Natural dammars and lacs are irreplaceable for many 

 uses. The biochemistry of many of the plant oUs, and 

 particularly that of their successful hydrogenation and 

 other chemical modification, has become of the very 

 highest importance to the food industry. The hydro- 

 genation of cottonseed oil has placed at our command 

 a higher hydrogen-content natural oil, analogous in 

 many ways to some of the animal fats, at a hitherto 

 impossibly low cost. Further, the substances so pre- 

 pared are in effect new, and totally imlike naturally 

 occurring products in many of their properties. 



Biochemistry is at least as essential to the pharma- 

 ceutical as it is to the food industry. The plant and 

 animal vitamin industry exceeds $120,000,000 in its 

 annual sales. Most of these vitamins are biochemi- 

 cally prepared from a great variety of sources, and 

 are purified and finished for medical use. We have 

 said a little of enzymes in their relation to the prep- 

 aration of foods. As general biologies, a very large 

 number of them are biochemically isolated from both 

 plant and animal sources and are annually placed on 

 the market. Rennin, invertase, papain, pancreatic 

 extracts, pepsin, amylase, microbial proteases are all 

 relatively commonplace today, and they find the great- 

 est variety of uses. Perhaps the most important of 

 these is still in medicine, but others are very nearly as 

 conspicuous. Enzymes play an extremely important 

 part in the tanning industry, whUe invertase is widely 

 used in the hydrolysis of sugar sirups. Enzyme diges- 

 tion of the gelatin base is an important step in the 

 recovery of silver from photographic film, often a very 

 economically important jirocedure to the cinema in- 

 dustry. 



Quite as important as the vitamins and enzymes 



obtained from plants and plant products are some of 

 the other substances biochemically produced from 

 them. The chemistry of natural flavorings and per- 

 fumes is very important both in their production and 

 for their successful imitation in the synthetic industry. 

 The biochemistry of plant flower colorings is of interest 

 to the synthetic dye industry. Important, especially 

 in medicine, is the biochemistry of plant alkaloids. 

 Quinine, caffeine, the cocaine derivatives, and many 

 other plant alkaloids stand as examples of the work 

 which biochemistry has done in this field. 



The biochemistry of narcotics, sedatives, and anaes- 

 thetics began as an essentially nonindustrial study, 

 devoted to the noncommercial alleviation of human 

 suffering. The tremendous amount of information 

 which it has accumulated, however, as to the action of 

 special chemical groups in human anaesthesia and 

 narcosis, as well as in germicidal and toxic action, has 

 become an important base of the entire pharmaceutical 

 industry. The knowledge gained in recent j'ears has 

 been so remarkably precise in nature that it is at pres- 

 ent possible to build a compound biochemically to 

 specification, so that it will be a narcotic, a sedative, an 

 anaesthetic, or a toxic substance, or may combine any 

 or all of these properties. No single field of biochemical 

 work has been of higher medical value. Closely related 

 to this field is that of chemotherapy, with its industrial 

 production of germicidal agents, and of such justly 

 famous substances as sulfanilimide and sulfathiazole. 

 The preparation of vaccines and of other disease-pre- 

 venting and immunization sera is a closely related 

 activity and is one of the most difficult, as well as the 

 most significant, fields of all biochemistry. Important 

 too are the diagnostic agents which are being developed 

 in the biochemical laboratories of pharmaceutical con- 

 cerns. 



The textile industry is by its very nature intimately 

 dependent upon biochemistry. Studies of the bio- 

 chemistry of silk, wool, and cotton have on the one 

 hand vastly improved the qualities of these products 

 over the last several years, and on the other have 

 given great impetus to the production of synthetic 

 materials. Recent biochemical studies of the structure 

 of cellulose and lignin have been of interest for the 

 production of artificial cellulose compounds of com- 

 mercial importance, such as cellulose nitrate, cellulose 

 acetate, and ethyl cellulose, on the one hand, and 

 various products derived from lignin on the other. 



The agricultural industries are effectively served by 

 biochemical science. We have already considered the 

 importance of biochemistry in the identification, isola- 

 tion, and modification of plant and animal products. 

 It is eciually significant in the rearing and care of the 

 productive organisms. The study of soils and of the 

 composition and action of fertilizers has formed a very 



