BETAINES 41 



Betaine is of rather widespread occurrence in plants and has also 

 been found repeatedly in animals, but it is by no means so common as 

 choline. Stanek and Domin [1910] have given a list of plants con- 

 taining betaine ; it was found in all species of Chenopodiacea examined ; 

 this natural order includes the sugar beet and also Chenopodium 

 Vulvaria which gives off trimethylamine during life. In the closely 

 related order of Amarantacea betaine was found by Stanek and Domin 

 in some genera only ; in other orders it only occurs sporadically and 

 in small amount. The dry leaves of Atriplex canescens (N.O. Cheno- 

 podiaceae) contain as much as 378 per cent, of betaine, but in rye the 

 amount is only 0-3 per cent, of the dry weight. Young sugar beets 

 contain 2 - 5 per cent., old ones I per cent, of betaine (Scheibler). 1 



Various authors have at different times expressed the view that 

 betaine may replace choline in lecithin. According to Trier [1912, 3, 

 p. 83 ; Ch. IV, choline] they were misled on account of the difficulty 

 of purifying the phosphatide. 



In the manufacture of beet sugar most of the betaine remains in 

 the molasses, but crude beet sugar may contain 0375 per cent, of 

 betaine (Waller and Plimmer [1903]). When the molasses are 

 desaccharified by means of strontium, the final liquor (" Schlempe ") 

 is very rich in betaine (i 15 grm. per kilo., Andrlik [1903-4]). 



Syntheses of betaine by Liebreich [1869, 2] and by Griess [1875] 

 have been referred to above ; it is also formed by isomeric change 

 from the methyl ester of dimethylamino-acetic acid in sealed tubes at 

 200 (see below). The estimation of betaine and its separation from 

 choline by Schulze's method [1909; Ch. IV, choline] and by StaneVs 

 method [1906, I, 2; Ch. IV, choline] are described on pp. 150-152. 



'Other sources of betaine are: Lycium barbarum (Husemann and Marm [1863]), 

 the press cake of cotton seeds (Ritthausen and Weger [1884]), malt and wheat germs 

 (Schulze and Frankfurt [1893 ; Ch. IV, choline]) ; (Yoshimura [1910, Ch. IV, choline] recently 

 found 0-06 per cent, of betaine in air dry malt germs) ; sunflower seeds (Schulze and Castoro 

 [1904]), tubers of Helianthus tnberosus (Schulze [1910]), seeds of Avena saliva (Schulze 

 and Pfenninger [1911; Ch. IV, choline]), Kola nuts (Polstorff [1909, 2; Ch. IV, choline]), 

 bamboo shoots (Totani [1910,2; Ch. IV, choline]), green tobacco leaves (Deleano and 

 Trier [1912]), ergot (Kraft [1906, Ch. IV, choline], Rielander [1908, Ch. I]) and com- 

 mercial mushroom extract (Kutscher [1910, 4 ; Ch. IV, choline]). 



For a long time the only recorded instance of the occurrence of betaine in animals 

 was Brieger's discovery of the base in mussels (Mytilus ednlis ; [1886, 1, pp. 77-79; Ch. I)]. 

 Later a number of other animal sources have become known : in commercial shrimp 

 extract (Ackermann and Kutscher [1907, 3]), in the muscles of Acanthias vulgaris, 2 per 

 cent, in embryos, 0-07 per cent, in adults (Suwa [1909, i], Kutscher [1910, 3]), in the crayfish, 

 Astacus fiuviatilis (Kutscher [1910, 2]), in a cuttle-fish (Octopus) (Henze [1910]). A sub- 

 stance from the Japanese cuttle-fish Ommastrephes identified by Suzuki and Yoshimura 

 [1909] as 5-amino-valeric acid is, according to Kutscher [1909], betaine. Betaine is also 

 present in mammalia; Bebeschin [1911] isolated 0*05 per cent, of betaine from ox-kidneys. 



