CANE SUGAR. 



Shorey has made very detailed studies of the nitrogenous bodies in the 

 cane. He finds that the principal amide is glycocoll 7 , and he failed to identify 

 asparagin; glycocoll being undecomposed on boiling in alkaline solution passes 

 on to the molasses. By precipitation with phosphotungstic acid after removal 

 of the albuminoids by copper oxide, he isolated a mixture of lecithins 8 the 

 alkaloidal basis of which he identified as betaine and choline ; the lecithins 

 being decomposed on boiling accounts in his opinion for the presence of 

 fats in the second and third bodies of the evaporators. The only xanthine 

 base found by Shorey was guanine 9 , which accumulates like the glycocoll in 

 the molasses. 



Fibre. By fibre is meant that portion of the cane insoluble in water; 

 C. A. Browne 6 found the crude fibre to consist of: 



Crude Fibre in 



Pith. Bundles. Rind. 



Per cent. Per cent. Per cent. 



Ash 1-68 .. 3-58 .. 1-64 



Fat and Wax '41 . . '72 . '98 



Protein 1'94 .. 2'00 .. 2'19 



Cellulose (Cross & Bevan) 49'00 .. 50-00 .. 51-09 



Pento'sau's (Furfuroids) . . . . 32-04 . . 28-67 . . 26*93 



Lignin 14-93 .. 15-03 .. 17'17 



and when calculated to 100 parts pure cane fibre, protein, ash and fat free, 



Per cent. 



Cellulose (including oxy cellulose) 55 



Pentosans (xylan and araban) 20 



Lignin 15 



Acetic acid 6 



Similar results were obtained by Geerligs 10 in Java. 



Cane "Wax. This body occurs on the rind of the cane and in some 

 varieties is almost absent ; it has been exhaustively studied by Wijnberg. 11 

 Generally dry press cake contains up to 10 per cent, to 12 per cent, of wax ; 

 about 70 per cent, of the crude body consists of the glycerides of oleic, 

 linolic, palmitic, and stearic acids, with hydroxyacids, resinacids, lecithin, 

 phylosterol, aromatic and colouring matters ; the remaining 30 per cent, 

 contains about 45 per cent, of myricyl alcohol and 35 per cent, of a non- 

 primary crystalline alcohol, with at least one other body. These data refer to 

 the benzene soluble bodies in press cake. At the moment of writing attention 

 is being paid to the commercial recovery of this body. 



Pectin. This body, also referred to as gums and alcoholic precipitate, 

 is of uncertain and indefinite composition ; it occurs in the cane up to as much 



16 



