Utilization of Salep Mannan. 



7 



tassium chloride (4.1 M) and hydrochloric acid solutions ranging 

 in concentrations between 0.1 molar and 1 molar. 



The salt bridge between the hydrogen and calomel elements 

 used in our measurements was a saturated solution of potassium 

 chloride. 



3 (1463) 



On the utilization of salep mannan. 

 By Mary Swartz Rose. 



[From the Department of Nutrition, Teachers College, Columbia 



University.] 



Some experiments on the utilization of salep mannan were 

 reported in 191 1. 1 It was found that this anhydride of mannose 

 was not hydrolyzed by the enzymes of saliva, pancreatic and 

 intestinal juice, nor by malt diastase, but disappeared almost 

 completely from the human alimentary tract when eaten, the 

 coefficient of digestibility in three out of four experiments being 

 100 per cent, and 94 per cent, in the fourth. Studies of the effect 

 of fecal bacteria indicated that some of them could produce appre- 

 ciable amounts of sugar from this polysaccharide, and stimulated 

 further research as to its precise fate in the animal organism. 

 Investigations were interrupted in 1914, when the war cut off the 

 supply of salep, and what has been accomplished along several 

 lines is now reported as it is doubtful when these studies can be 

 resumed. 



Four more determinations of the coefficient of digestibility 

 were made, two on healthy young women and two on diabetics. 

 The young women, consuming identical and uniform diets, free 

 from cellulose, throughout a fore, mid, and after period, took in 

 the mid period of three days 75 grams of salep mannan, equivalent 

 to 61 grams of glucose. The coefficient of digestibility was 97 

 per cent, in one case and 95 in the other. A diabetic man given in 

 one day 45 grams of salep mannan, with no other food but broth, 

 coffee and whiskey, had a coefficient of 98 per cent. A diabetic 

 boy fifteen years old, took in three days 33, 65 and 70 grams of 



1 Trans. Conn. Acad. Arts and Sciences, XVI, pp. 247-382, 191 1. 



