[Annals N. Y. Acad. Sci., Vol. XXVI, pp. 385-394, PI. V. 18 October, 1915] 



BIOCHEMICAL STUDIES OF SELENIUM ^ 



; -'^V i 1915 



By Victor E. Levine \ 



(Presented in abstract hefore the Academy, 18 May, 191^) 



CONTENTS 



Page 

 Introduction 385 



Sodium selenite as a reagent for reducing substances 386 



Reduction of selenium compounds in the living organism 388 



Plant substances : 388 



Yeast 388 



Unboiled milk 388 



Animal tissues 389 



Selenium compounds injected into the animal system 389 



Living bacteria 390 



Effect of selenium compounds upon catalase and other enzymes 391 



Catalase 391 



Salivary amylase 392 



Pepsin 392 



Trypsin 392 



Rennin 392 



Pancreatic lipase 393 



Alcoholic fermentation 393 



Toxic effects of selenium compounds 393 



Introduction 



There has been of late an ever increasing interest in the quest for 

 information concerning the biologic action of the rare elements. Within 

 the last few years attempts have been made to introduce radium, thorium, 

 cerium, vanadium, tellurium and others into therapeutics; and it is but 

 ver}^ recently that palladium has been suggested as a cure for obesity and 

 selenium as a valuable agent in cancer therapy. Furthermore, selenium 

 has become of increasing interest since it has been found (to the extent 

 of 0.2 mg. per liter) in the mineral waters of La Eoche-Posay, and since 

 some of its compounds can serve as excellent reagents for the detection 

 of certain alkaloids and also for the detection of micro-organisms. 



The experiments undertaken extend the work, in this laboratory, which 

 was done on selenium by "Woodruff and Gies more than a decade ago. 



1 Manuscript received by the Editor 27 March, 1915. 



(385) 



