﻿500 ^^^ Philippine Journal of Science wi* 



to be substantiated by Popielski who ascribes the active physio- 

 logical principle of Witte's peptone to an alcohol-soluble im- 

 purity, "vasodilatine." 



A study of the alcohol-soluble proteoses should go far toward 

 clearing up the problem as to whether "peptone" shock is really 

 due to the proteose itself or to alcohol-soluble impurities. It 

 would be expected a priori that, if such an alcohol-soluble sub- 

 stance is really present with the proteose, the process of separa- 

 tion with alcohol would yield a nonactive product or that the 

 active principle, if it is deposited on cooling, would be much more 

 concentrated. If the physiological effects are essentially un- 

 changed, it would be justifiable to conclude that these are charac- 

 teristic of the proteose per se. 



Accordingly, 500 grams of Witte's peptone were extracted with 

 about 3 liters of hot 80 to 85 per cent alcohol. The alcohol was 

 filtered off on a hot water funnel, allowed to cool slowly, 

 and then placed in the ice box. A small amount of proteose 

 separated out with the characteristic spherule formation. This 

 residue was filtered, pressed out between dry filters, and pre- 

 served. The filtrate was poured over the original proteose 

 residue, and the procedure was repeated. After numerous ex- 

 tractions, the residues were redissolved in water and dried on the 

 water bath; about 60 grams of hot alcohol-soluble proteoses 

 (preparation 1) were obtained. 



The reextraction of the original residue with fresh alcohol was 

 then undertaken, and about 50 grams more of the alcohol-soluble 

 proteoses were obtained. This material was again redeposited 

 from a repeated hot alcoholic extraction until about 40 grams 

 of proteose (preparation 2) were recovered. After every ex- 

 traction, the deposit was spherular in character. 



The yield from Witte's peptone was then over 20 per cent. 

 The final products were obtained as fine white powders, sup- 

 posedly proteoses. They give a typical (not pink) biuret reac- 

 tion, a Millon's test, a strong Hopkins-Cole reaction, and contain 

 a small amount of loosely combined sulphur. They are com- 

 pletely soluble to almost colorless solutions in hot water, but 

 concentrated solutions yield a slight deposit of spherules on cool- 

 ing and standing. They are precipitated by absolute alcohol. 

 Unlike other proteoses or proteins, they may be dried on the 

 water bath to an easily friable residue. The process of separa- 

 tion is a tedious one; nearly three weeks were required to com- 

 plete the above preparations. 



When injected intravenously into dogs, both preparations 



