I 



2 



U. SUZUKI. 



shown by Kutscher 05 that arginin results from the artificial 

 trypsin digestion of proteids ; and recently EIlinger TO consider- 

 ed it to be the source of putrescins. Thus, the physiological 

 importance of organic bases and especially of arginin has been 

 more and more clearly brought to light by these authors, and 

 consequently its study is now considered as one of the most 

 important subjects in the whole domain of physiological 

 chemistry/ 35 



Although arginin has so often been made the object of 

 investigation, yet many questions are left unsettled ; and, 

 among others, its behaviour, formation and transformation in the 

 plant cells, its relation to the regeneration of proteids and the 

 influence of light and other agents upon these processes have 

 been studied very little. It was with the object of contributing 

 something on these points that I made the present investigation. 



I. On the decomposition product of the proteids prepared 

 from the seeds of Japanese coniferous plants. 



A) CRYPTOMERIA JAPONICA. 



Proteids from the seeds of Cryptomeria japonica were pre- 

 pared according to Ritthausen's method : — Powdered seeds (4;> 

 were first extracted with absolute alcohol and ether to free them 



(1) Fr. Kutscher. ibid. Bd. XXV, S. 195. 



(2) Ber. d. deutsch. chem. Ges. Bd. XXXI, S. 3183. 



(3) Recently it was found that arginin, prepared from plants, differs somewhat, 

 from that of animal origin and it was considered as isomerides, compare — Wl. 

 Gulewitsch : — iiber das Arginin : — Zeits. f. Physiol. Chem. Bd. XXVII. S. 178. 



(4) Seeds of Cryptomeria contain almost no other nitrogen compounds. Thus a 

 fat-free sample yielded 1.80^ nitrogen, of which 1.78^ was albuminoid nitrogen. 



It is also very important to see the chemical nature of the proteids contained in the 

 seeds: — For this purpose 10 grams of the fat-free powder was mixed with 30C.C of a 

 10% sodium chloride solution, well stirred and after a few hours standing, fdtered off, 

 the clear filtrate gave by boiling, a white curdy precipitate, owing to the presence of some 

 coagulable globulin. This precipitate was collected, while hot, on a filter washed with 

 hot sodium chloride, dried and subjected to Kjeldahl's method for nitrogen deter- 

 mination. The filtrate was acidified with sulphuric acid and some phospho-tungstic 

 acid was added, to precipitate the globulin not coagulable by boiling and this precipitate 

 was also subjected to the method for nitrogen determination. The following results were 

 obtained : 



