58 SCIENTIFIC AND APPLIED PHARMACOGNOSY 



cells are narrow thin-walled tube-cells, which are also found in the 

 other cereals. Corn meal contains more starch and oil and little hull, 

 as compared to corn bran. In Broom Corn and Sugar Sorghum the 

 tangential walls of the cells of the epicarp are undulate and distinctly 

 porous; and the more or less polygonal cells of the perisperm are 

 quite prominent. These two kinds of cells serve to distinguish these 

 fruits from either corn or any of the other cereals. 



Corn Bran. Less starch and oil and more hull, as compared to 

 corn meal. 



Rice Starch. This is prepared by the use of chemicals much 

 the same as in the preparation of corn starch and is either in the 

 form of a white or cream-colored powder of small, irregular masses. 

 The individual grains like those of oat (Fig. 20), are polygonal, from 

 0.002 to 0.010 mm. in diameter, with a central cleft, and usually 

 united into small aggregates of two or more. The product sold for 

 rice starch is frequently rice flour, and is characterized by the large, 

 oval aggregates of numerous grains, as well as cellular tissue. 



Rice Flour consists chiefly of the small, angular starch grains and 

 aggregates like those of oat. There are also present some of the 

 polygonal cells containing aleurone grains and a few fragments of the 

 pericarp. The latter is especially characterized by the radially 

 elongated cells of the epicarp, which are 0.100 to 0.500 mm. long and 

 0.025 to 0.100 mm. wide, and the end walls of which are deeply undu- 

 late, resembling the epidermal cells of some leaves. 



The Rice Powder of commerce may consist of mixtures of rice 

 starch with any of the following substances: corn starch, talc, zinc, 

 oxide, chalk or bismuth subnitrate. (La Wall, Amer. Jour. Pharm., 

 1915, p. 299.) 



Rice Bran. It has been known for some years that while polished 

 rice produces in chickens the symptoms of beri-beri, the same chickens 

 fed with rice bran recovered. What constituent of rice bran produces 

 this result has been the subject of considerable investigation in Japan, 

 and Suzuki isolated a principle which he called aberinic acid, and later 

 obtaining it much purer he called the latter product, oryganin. 

 Kondo and Gorin have recently studied the use of these rice bran 

 preparations in beri-beri. They find that the bran and its extract 

 made with 90 per cent alcohol were efficacious in the disease produced 

 in doves; that an extract made with 20 per cent alcohol is of service, 

 but not so efficacious as the extract made with stronger alcohol ; and 

 that Suzuki's oryganin does not seem effective. 



This latter substance was found to be a mixture, containing 

 choline, nicotinic acid and adenin. In addition, rice bran contains 



