we have isolated the same substance from a mixture of phytin after 

 this has been acted upon by the enzyme phytase from wheat bran 

 (Anderson 1915 (2) ). A good yield has been obtained on the partial 

 hydrolysis of phytin with dilute sulfuric acid in an autoclave. At first 

 we believed that inosite monophosphoric acid occurred naturally in 

 the wheat bran. But since the substance is produced through the 

 action of phytase on phytin and also by the partial hydrolysis of this 

 substance with sulfuric acid, it seems more reasonable to believe that 

 it is produced during the extraction by the action of the phytase upon 

 inosite hexaphosphoric acid which is present in the wheat bran. 



As a result of the action of phytase upon phytin certain com- 

 pounds were also produced which appeared to consist of a mixture of 

 inosite tri- and di-phosphoric acid. These substances, however, could 

 not be separated into definitely homogeneous salts (Anderson 1915 

 (2))- 



We have separated from the mixture of inosite phosphoric acids 

 obtained from wheat bran on digesting this material in 0.2 per cent, 

 hydrochloric acid a substance which on analysis gave results corre- 

 sponding to the composition of inosite triphosphoric acid (Anderson 

 1915 (1) ). This compound had been purified by means of the crystal- 

 line strychnine salt and then converted into the barium salt. The 

 barium salt was amorphous and the free acid was a non-crystallizable 

 syrup. The only claim to homogeneity for this substance, therefore, 

 is based upon a crystalline strychnine salt and, in view of this fact, 

 we would not emphasize this claim too strongly. The molecular 

 weight of such strychnine salt is so high that the acid part of the mole- 

 cule is very small in comparison with the strychnine and it is quite 

 impossible to determine accurately from the analysis of these salts 

 the composition of the acid. 



The reactions of the free inosite triphosphoric acid prepared from 

 the barium salt differed in several particulars from the reactions given 

 by inosite hexaphosphoric acid. The concentrated aqueous solution 

 gave no precipitate with ammonium molybdate, while inosite hexa- 

 phosphoric acid gives a white, crystalline precipitate. Silver nitrate 

 in excess gave no reaction, while this reagent causes a white precipi- 

 tate with inosite hexaphosphoric acid. The aqueous solution of the 

 acid gave only a slight turbidity when added to egg albumin and only 

 on longer standing was a white precipitate produced. 



Rather (1917 (1) ) described a preparation obtained from cotton- 

 seed meal which corresponded in composition to inosite triphosphoric 

 acid. This substance had also been separated as a crystalline strych- 

 nine salt. This author was never able to duplicate this result with any 

 other sample of cottonseed meal. 



Boutwell (1917), in working on the inosite phosphoric acids in 



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