454 



Studies on Enzyme Action — Lipase. 

 By Dr. Maurice Nicloux. 



(Communicated by Professor W. D. Halliburton, F.E.S. Received January 16, — 



Read February 1, 1906.) 



In a recent number of the ' Proceedings of the Royal Society '* Dr. Henry G. 

 Armstrong published a paper with the above title. I beg leave to draw 

 attention to the workf I have performed on the saponification of fats by 

 castor-oil seeds, and, without entering into detail, to state my general 

 conclusions. These are as follows : — 



(a) By mechanical means it is possible to separate the cytoplasm of the 

 castor-oil seeds from all the other cellular elements, particularly from the 

 aleurone grains. 



(b) Pure cytoplasm prepared as above alone has the property of hydro- 

 lising fats ; its power is considerable. 



(c) It acts on the fats in the same way as an enzyme, and follows all the 

 laws of enzyme action. 



(d) Nevertheless the active substance of which cytoplasm is but probably 

 the support is not an enzyme; this substance, which I proposed to call 

 " lipase'idine," is destroyed by water as soon as it is no longer protected by 

 fats. 



(e) It is possible to repeat in vitro with isolated cytoplasm hydrolysis of 

 the fatty matter such as occurs in the seed at the time of germination. 



* < Roy. Soc. Proc.,' B, vol. 76, p. 606. 



t These were published in a series of notes in the ' Comptes Eendus de FAcademie des 

 Sciences ' : — " Sur un procede d'isolement des substances cytoplasmiques," 1 Compt. Rend.,' 

 1904, vol. 138, p. 1112 ; " Sur le pouvoir saponifiant de la graine de ricin," ' Compt. Rend.,' 

 1904, vol. 138, p. 1175 ; " Etude de Taction lipolytique du cytoplasma de la graine de 

 ricin," 'Compt. Rend.,' 1904, vol. 138, p. 1288 ; "La propriety lipolytique du cytoplasma 

 de la graine de ricin n'est pas due a, un ferment soluble," ' Compt. Rend.,' 1904, vol. 138, 

 p. 1352; "Mfjcanisme d'action du cytoplasma (lipase'idine) dans la graine en voie de 

 germination; realisation synthetique de ce m6canisme," 'Compt. Rend.,' 1904, vol. 139, 

 p. 143 ; and later in a general memoir, " La saponification des corps gras," ' Revue 

 Generale des Sciences,' 16eme Annee, No. 23, 15 Decembre, 1905, pp. 1029—1037. 



