328 CREATINE. [BOOK I. 



I. When creatine is dissolved, in the cold, in the 



ti strong mineral acids, or heated for some time in dilute 



mineral acids, or heated for a much longer time (several days) 



with water, a molecule of water is removed and Creatinine is formed, thus : 



C 4 H 9 N 3 O 2 = C 4 H 7 N 3 + H 2 



Creatine. Creatinine. Water. 



II. When boiled with baryta water, creatine yields urea, sarcosin, 

 methylhydantoin, methylparabanic acid and ammonia; these bodies are 

 products of several reactions which go on side by side, as shewn by the 

 following equations : 



(a) C 4 H 9 N 3 O 2 + H 2 = CH 4 N 2 + C 3 H 7 N0 2 



Creatine. Water. Urea. Sarcosin. 



(b) C 4 H 9 N 3 O 2 = C 4 H 6 N 2 O 2 + NH 3 



Creatine. Methylhydantoin. Ammonia. 

 (c) C 4 H 9 N 3 O 2 + 2 = C 4 H 4 N 2 8 + NH 3 



Creatine. Methylparabanic Ammonia. 



acid. 



III. When boiled with mercuric oxide, an aqueous solution of 

 creatine yields oxalate of inethylurarnine and water, thus : 



C 4 H 9 N 3 O 2 + 2HgO = C 2 H 7 N 3 . C 2 H 2 4 + 2Hg 



Creatine. Mercuric oxide. Oxalate of Methyl- Mercury. 



uramine. 



Synthesis When the alcoholic solution of 2 parts of sarcosin 



and constitu- (methylglycosine) is heated for some hours at 100C. with 1 

 tion of crea- part of freshly prepared cyanamide, creatine is formed ; thus : 

 tine. 



Methylglycosine, Cyanamide. Methyl-guanidine 



or acetic acid, 



Sarcosin. or Creatine. 



Quantity of The quantity of creatine in the muscles of different 



creatine pre- animals and in different muscles of the same animal 

 sent in mus- d oes no t vary greatly. The following are the results of 



Voit's 1 determinations. 



100 parts of Muscle of Frog yield 0' 210' 35 pts. of Creatine. 

 ., Fox 0-2060-237 



Ox 0-2190-276 



Dog 02230-248 



Rabbit,, 0-2690-336 



Man 0-2820-301 



According to Voit tbe muscular substance of tbe heart contains 

 less creatine than the voluntary muscles, and not, as Liebig stated, 

 a larger quantity. According to Demant the amount of creatine* 

 increases remarkably in starvation. 



1 Voit, Zeitschr.f. Biolog. Vol. iv. (1868) p. 77. 



2 Demant, " Zur Kenntniss der Extractivstoffe der Muskehi." ZeitscTiriftf.phys. 

 Chemie, Vol. HI. (1879) p. 387. 



