JOURNAL 
The New Bees Botanical Garden 
Goel nn May, 1902, No, 29. 
A NEW METHOD OF TREATING CEREAL GRAINS 
AND STARCHY PRODUCTS. 
The cereal grains including wheat, rice, barley, oats, maize and 
rye form a most important part of the food of the human race. 
The chief value of the cereals lies in the starch which they con- 
tain, which may amount to as much as 50 to 80 per cent. of the 
weight of the dried kernels. 
Starch occurs in plants in the form of globose, ovoid, and ob- 
long bodies of rounded outline, the exact shape assumed in any 
plant being more or less characteristic of the species. Almost 
any growing green plant will be found to contain starch grains 
size. Those of the potato often attain a diameter of a hundredth 
of an inch, being visible to the naked eye. An examination of 
the granules with a magnification of a few hundred diameters 
shows that they are constructed of concentric layers or coats of 
alternating denser and watery layers, the centrum around which 
the layers are arranged being of the latter character. The granule 
contains from 15 to 22 per cent. of water when in an a air-dry con- 
dition. Investigation of these interesting bodies with reference to 
their formation shows that they are really built up like crystals, 
being in fact sphaero-crystals. 
Starch granules when intact are acted upon but slowly by 
chemicals, especially the digestive enzymes. Consequently 
starchy substances are made more suitable for food by cooking 
or some method of treatment by which the granules are broken 
up. When starch granules are warmed in water they begin to 
swell at a temperature of 55° to Go” C., and burst at 75° to 80°C., 
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