IV 
HYDROLYTIC PROCESSES IN THE GERMINATION OF 
OIL-CONTAINING SEEDS 
Since we mentioned the fact that in the fertilized egg hydro- 
lytic processes (or at least reactions other than oxidations) 
take place, and since little or nothing is known about these 
reactions in animal eggs, a discussion of the processes occurring 
in germinating oily seeds may be of interest. As an example, 
the investigations of Hoyer with Connstein and Wartenberg 
may be used. The experiments were carried out by Hoyer. 
If castor beans are ground up with water, and the resulting seed- 
oil emulsion (seed-milk) is left alone for a few days, there is observed 
after a time a sudden, rapid increase of the mass of acid, whereby the 
neutral oil contained in the castor bean is converted into acid and 
glycerin. This observation, made for the first time some four years 
ago, was the starting-point for the investigation of the decomposition 
of fat by means of the lipolytic ferments contained in plant seeds, and 
especially in those of the castor bean. This ferment, which has been 
worked at ever since from several sides, has been used successfully as a 
technical fat-splitting process. 
On the establishment of the conditions mentioned, i.e., the grind- 
ing up of the seeds, the fat-splitting effect of the castor bean ferment 
does not set in for some time, but then it occurs suddenly. We recog- 
nized the reason for the appearance of this sudden action in the fact 
that an intensification of the decomposition of the fat only occurs 
when a sufficient mass of acid is present. For the fat-splitting effect 
of the castor bean can be at once produced, if at the start a certain 
small quantity of acid or the salt of an acid be added to the mass. 
This amount differs according to the kind of acid. In a later publica- 
tion of mine the amounts of these acids have been accurately deter- 
mined; whence it appears that of the acids examined, butyric allows 
the widest latitude with regard to the quantity employed, whilst sul- 
phuric and oxalic, for example, require a very close adherence to 
their proportionate quantities.! 
1 Hoyer, ‘‘Ueber fermentative Fettspaltung,”’ Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 
L, 414, 1907. 
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