154 



THE CHEMISTRY OF THE PLANT 



Formaldehyde — C 



Asparagin 



C4H8N0O3, (CO(XHo) - CH2 

 -CH(XHo)-COOH). 



Chit in 

 CisH 



iNoOi 



hydrates. Found free in 

 minute quantities in leaves 

 when active photosynthesis is 

 occurring. 



This is found, especially in the 

 growing regions, in many 

 plants, e.g. asparagus, peas, 

 beans, vetches, beet roots, 

 potatoes, etc. 



This forms part of, or in some 

 cases is the chief constituent of, 

 the cell wall of many of the 

 lower plants, e.g. Myxo- 

 phyceae, Mucorales, Carpo- 

 myceteae. It was long con- 

 sidered a form of cellulose 

 ("fungus cellulose")- It 

 forms the body waU of insects, 

 crustaceans, etc. 

 Formed by the fermentation 

 of the seed pods (''beans") of 

 the Vanilla plant, whence it is 

 extracted by alcohol. It is 

 present in most if not all 

 lignified cell walls and is 

 possibly one of the substances 

 giving the cell wall the char- 

 acters that we call "lignifica- 

 tion" (see hadromal). 

 Hadromal (composition uncer- This is a substance separated 

 tain) by Czapek from hgnified cell 



walls and believed by him to 

 be what gives them their 

 "Hgnified" character. On the 

 other hand many botanists do 

 not consider this as the impor- 

 tant body and ascribe hgnifi ca- 

 tion to the presence in the cell 

 walls of conifcrin and vanilhn 

 (q.v.) and perhaps other sub- 

 stances. 



Vanillin 

 CsHsOa 



