85 



to the age of the seed, state of germination, etc. Brocc}-Rousseu 

 and Gain'^"" examined the seeds of species of plants from many 

 different families. They used both guaiac tincture and guaiacol 

 with the addition of hydrogen peroxide as tests for peroxidase 

 or "peroxydiastase," as they called it. Peroxidase was present 

 in nearly all seeds examined, the amount decreasing with their 

 age; however, in kernels of corn they found peroxidase after the 

 corn had been standing for over two hundred years. They 

 further noted that oxygenase was rarely present in the seeds, 

 and also that the strongest test for peroxidase was given by the 

 embryo. Bialosuknia^^ made glycerine extracts of resting and 

 germinating seeds, testing these extracts for oxidases with guaiac 

 tincture, indophenol reagent, benzidin, etc. Peroxidase was 

 present in the resting seeds and at all stages of germination, 

 while oxygenase (direct oxidase) could not be detected in the 

 seeds before the second day, after which it was always present. 

 Deleano^^ also made a study of the germination of seeds, getting 

 the same results as those obtained by Bialosuknia. The catalase 

 increased rapidly and then disappeared along with the fat. He 

 found further that reductase (reducing enzyme) was present and 

 that it was localized in the protein part of the seed. Issajew^^ 

 made a careful study of the oxidase of germinated barley, his 

 results agreeing with those of the other investigators already 

 noted. He found the same increase of oxidases after germination 

 and confirmed the presence of the so-called reducing enzymes 

 under these conditions. 



In the study of oxidizing substances and enzymes in biological 

 materials, it soon became apparent that in many cases there 

 occurred reducing substances along with the oxidases, etc. 

 Frequently these reducing substances were called enzymes and 

 given special names, such as the "philothion" of Rey-Pail- 



'"^ Brocq-Rousseu and Gain. Sur I'existence d'une peroxydiastase dans les 

 graines seches. Compt. Rend. Acad. Sci. 145: 1297. 1907. 



'1 Bialosulcnia. Ueber Pflanzen-Fermente. Zts. Physiol. Chem. 58: 487. 1908. 



'^Deleano. Recherche chemique sur lar germination. Centralbl. f. Bakt., II. 

 Abt. 24: 130. 1909. 



3'Issajew. Ueber die Malzoxydase. Zts. Physiol. Chem. 45: 331. 1905. 



