634 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



Wlien heated for forty hours with five parts of water in a closed 

 vessel, iniilin is almost comi^letely converted into levulose. Levulin 

 is formed at most only in traces. The change into levulose is effected 

 much more quickly by the action of dilute acids, which brings about 

 saccharification even at the ordinary temperature. By dilute nitric 

 acid, in addition to levulose, formic acid, racemic acid, glycolic acid, 

 oxalic acid, and probably glycoxylic acid, are produced. Dextrose 

 produces, under similar conditions, besides traces of formic 

 acid, only oxalic acid and saccharic acid, but no glycolic or gluconic 

 acid. Inulin is oxidized by chamseleon even at the ordinary tempera- 

 ture into formic and oxalic acids. At the same time there is formed, 

 in very small quantity, a solid substance volatile with aqueous vaj)our, 

 with the melting-point 46°. The action of baryta hydrate on inulin 

 causes the production of butyric acid in large quantities. By bromine 

 at the ordinary temperature it is very slowly oxidized, with formation 

 of carbonic acid, bromoform, and oxalic acid, acting in the same way 

 as levulose. If a solution of inulin, levulose, or dextrose is heated 

 with silver oxide, glycolic acid is produced, carbonic and oxalic acids 

 being formed at the same time. Dextrose is very rapidly oxidized by 

 bromine at the ordinary temperature into gluconic acid, according to 

 the equation CgHi^Oe + Br2 -j- H.,0 = CgH^.^O, + 2BrH. The action 

 of concentrated hydriodic acid on inulin and levulose results in the 

 formation of a non-volatile viscous substance, and a small quantity of 

 an oil containing iodine. Nascent hydrogen produces from inulin 

 neither mannite nor mannitan. Heating a solution with oxide of 

 lead does not cause the production of lactic acid ; on heating with 

 chlor-benzoyl, its benzoyl derivatives are not formed. 



The author does not agree with the view of Prantl that inulin is 

 closely related to cane-sugar; nor with that of Rose that it stands 

 between starch and sugar. The parallel drawn by Prantl between the 

 two substances depends on purely physical and not on chemical pro- 

 perties. He is of opinion that it is more closely allied to levulose 

 than to any other carbo-hydrate, passing into it with great facility, 

 and appearing to be simply its anhydride. It is distinguished from 

 levulose by not reducing Fehling's solution, by not being directly 

 fermentable by yeast, and especially by the fact that from inulin 

 nascent hydrogen does not give rise either to mannite or to mannitan. 

 Next to levulose it seems most closely related to starch ; starch 

 having the same relation to dextrose that inulin has to levulose. 



New Botanical Journal. — The first three numbers are issue(3 of 

 a new monthly botanical journal, the ' Archives Botaniques du Nord 

 de la France ; Revue botanique mensuelle, publico sous la direction 

 de C. Eg. Bertrand.' These three numbers are written entirely by the 

 editor, and consist, after an introductory preface, of the commence- 

 ment of a treatise on morphology, entitled " Definition des Membres 

 des Plantes vasculaires," and the commencement of a treatise on 

 botany for the use of students, in the form of lessons, the first lesson 

 being devoted to the structure of the seed. 



