XI, A, 2 Brill: Salicylic Acid Reaction of Beans 83 



per cent, is shown by a black variety grown in Germany and 

 France. Contrast these yields with the maximum protein con- 

 tent, 26.00 and 22.50 per cent, for lentils and kidney beans, 

 respectively, and the maximum fat content, 1.40 and 2.00 per 

 cent, for cowpeas and kidney beans, respectively, and the supe- 

 riority of soy beans as an adjunct food for carbohydrates is very 

 clearly brought out. 



These beans are used in the preparation of so many and so 

 varied kinds of foods, such as milk, cheese, casein, oil, jellies, 

 flour, bread, biscuits, cakes, and sauces, that any information 

 regarding their properties is particularly interesting and im- 

 portant; when these data are concerned with a property, such 

 as the giving of a test for salicylic acid in the generally used 

 ferric chloride color test, the recording of such data becomes 

 doubly important. One very prominent duty of a government 

 food laboratory is the testing of foods to determine if they are 

 in accord with the laws regulating their preparation for 

 consumption. The use of salicylic acid and the salicylates in 

 foods has been prohibited.* In the light of this prohibition it 

 seems very essential that the knowledge that a food under cer- 

 tain conditions gives this test should be generally known, in or- 

 der that no injustice may be done to it. 



In the test for salicylic acid, a substance volatile in steam, 

 soluble in ether, capable of sublimation and crystallization, and 

 giving a violet color with ferric chloride is usually considered 

 to be salicylic acid.' 



However, such a test is not conclusive evidence that salicylic 

 acid is present. 



Brand * found that an extract of caramel malt gave a reac- 

 tion with ferric chloride like that given by salicylic acid. One 

 year later he succeeded in isolating a crystalline substance ob- 

 tained by condensing the vapors given off during the roasting 

 of so-called malt coffee.' This compound is soluble in ether or 

 water (much less soluble in cold water than in hot water), 

 volatile in steam, and gives a violet color with ferric chloride, 

 but does not give the red color with Millon's reagent which 

 is given by salicylic acid. This compound, called maltol by 

 Brand, he found to be phenolic in character and to agree with 



'Food Inspection Decision, U. S. Dept. Agr. (1907), 76. 

 ^Bull. U. S. Dept. Agr. (1908), 107, 197; Leach, Food Inspection and 

 Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, New York (1907), 671. 

 *Zeitschr. f. d. ges. Brau. (1893), 15, 303. 

 •fier. d. deutsch. chem. Ges. (1894), 27, 806. 



