TRANSACTIONS OF SUB-SECTION B. 579 



3. A Preliminary Note on the Fatty Substances in Oat Kernel. 

 By Professor R. A. Berry, Ph.D. 



It has been shown by Maxwell, Schulze, Hoppe-Seyler, and others that the 

 ether extract of plants may contain, in addition to the oil, other bodies such as 

 waxes, hydrocarbons, colouring bodies, lecithin, cholesterins, &c, in varying 

 amounts, and that prolonged digestion with the solvent is necessary for the 

 extraction of the oil from seeds. Dry oat kernel was subjected to repeated 

 five-hour extractions with different solvents, 5 grs. in duplicate or quadruplicate 

 being taken in each case, with the result that ether, chloroform, light B.P. 

 petroleum ether, and carbon tetrachloride extracted over 95 per cent., absolute 

 alcohol 925 per cent., benzene 89'24 per cent., and acetone 889 per cent, of the 

 total extract in the first of three five-hour extractions. The ether extractions 

 were repeated six times, and the last extraction still gave an increase of 1*7 per 

 cent. The oil from the chloroform and alcohol extract was turbid ; in the rest 

 it was clear. Invariably the second and third extractions were partly solid. 

 In the case of chloroform it was a clear crystalline solid. The residual meal after 

 the thirty-hour ether extraction was extracted for a further five hours with 

 absolute alcohol, and yielded 0-083 gr. extract ; and the residual meal from the 

 fifteen-hour alcohol extract yielded, with a further five hours' extractions with 

 ether, 0004 gr. extract. The former was composed mostly of lecithin. Taking 

 the total ether extract of three five-hour extractions as 100, the ratio for the 

 other solvents obtained in the same way are : Petroleum ether 97'07, carbon 

 tetrachloride 104"24, chloroform 109-78, acetone 112-71, benzene 113-15, absolute 

 alcohol 127-93. 



Pur© dry ether, compared with ordinary ether, with a fifteen-hour extraction 

 yielded the following results calculated as percentages of the dry meal : — 



Dry Ether Ordinary Ether 



Dry meal 9-25 9-43 



Air-dry meal 9"40 972 



Dry ether and dry meal yield the purer oil. 



Oat oil from the dry ether extract gives a saponification equivalent of 265, 

 potash absorption 21'2 per cent., iodine absorption 99 - 9 per cent. ; and it contains 

 4 per cent, of free fatty acids calculated as oleic acid. With nitrous acid a solid 

 claiden was formed. 



The greater part of the lead salts of the fatty acids were soluble in ether, 

 and yielded fatty acids liquid at the ordinary temperature, with a mean combining 

 weight of 254 and iodine absorption of 106. The fatty acids from the insoluble 

 lead salts were solid. Small amounts of unsaponifiable matter were found in all 

 the extracts. 



FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 2. 



The following Papers were read : — 



1. Sugar-beet Growing and Beet-sugar Manufacture in England. 

 By Sigmtjnd Stein. 



Sugar-beet growing in the United Kingdom dates back to 1835, when sugar- 

 beet was grown experimentally in Surrey. In 1853 a small beet-sugar factory 

 was erected at Mount Mellick, Queen's County, Ireland. Later, experiments were 

 carried out in different parts of the country, and in 1867 Mr. Campbell, of 

 Buscot, near Faringdon, grew sugar beetroots on a more extensive scale. About 

 1870 a beet-sugar factory was started at Lavenham, but it failed. Since then 

 many experiments have been carried out by various agriculturists and scientists. 



During the last twenty years the author has carried out about four thousand 

 sugar-beet growing experiments in practically every county in England, Scotland, 

 and Ireland. Thirty-six different seeds were used, including German, French, 

 Austrian, Russian, Dutch, and English. The average results show a yield of 

 sugar-beet with leaves of 39 tons 5 cwt, per acre. The average yield of roots 



