On the Occurrence of Organic Iron Compounds 

 in Plants. 



BY 



U. Suzuki. 



Although iron is indispensable for the formation of 

 chlorophyll, yet according to Gautier and to Molisch, 1 it is not 

 contained in this colouring matter itself. Further J. Stoklasa 2 

 found that it is not present in his " Chlor lecithin." Bunge and 

 others had already proved that in plants iron never exists as 

 inorganic compounds. Bunge 3 succeeded in isolating an iron- 

 nuclein compound from the yolk of the hen's egg which he 

 called haematogen to indicate its close relation to haemoglobin. 

 Stoklasa 4 obtained from the bulb of Allium cepa and from 

 the seed of Pisum sativum, a similar compound. Haematogen 

 contains, besides iron, a small quantity of calcium, magnesium, 

 chlorine and much phosphoric acid. The presence of these is 

 common in nuclein. It was hitherto supposed that the 

 common nuclein does not contain iron ; this may be due to 

 the usual mode of its preparation which consists in dissolving it 

 several times in alkaline solution and subsequently precipi- 

 tating it. 



The " haematogen " of Bunge and of Stoklasa has the 

 following composition : — 



We see that the haematogen of animal and vegetable origin closely resemble in their 

 chemical nature. The only difference being the higher percentage of iron in the 

 vegetable haematogen. 



Zalcski obtained Bunge's haematogen from the liver of animals. Macallum also 

 found iron in the nucleus of plant cd!s. 



1 H. Molisch ; — Eisen und Hire Beziehungen zu den Pflanzen, — Jena 1S92. 



2 J. Stoklasa ; — Ueber die physiologische Funktion des Lecithins in der Pflanze 

 (Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien 1S96). 



3 J. Bunge; — Ueber die Assimilation des Eisens (Zeitschrift fiir physiologische 

 Chemie)'; Strassburg 1885. 



4 J. Stoklasa ; — Comptes rendus d. l'Acid. des sciences 127. 282-83. Chem. Labor, 

 des Polytechnikums. Brag. 



