On the Relative Value of Asparagine as a nutrient 

 for Fungi. 



BY 



T. Nakamura, Nogakushi. 



In order to arrive at a reliable judgement in regard to the 

 value of asparagine for fungi as a material for production of 

 proteids, it is necessary to offer it in conjunction with another 

 organic material which is free from nitrogen and is able not only 

 to supply a great deal of carbon which is necessary to form 

 proteids from asparagine, but which also would easily support 

 respiration and serve for the formation of cellulose. But such 

 very favourable nutrients as glycerol or glucose have to be 

 avoided, because these would somewhat obscure the relative 

 value of the nitrogenous compounds inasmuch as they yield a 

 very good result even with such simple nitrogenous compounds 

 as ammonia. I selected therefore as less favourable material 

 ethyl and methyl alcohol. The amount of nitrogenous and non- 

 nitrogenous compounds was such that the number of carbon atoms 

 was four times that of the number of nitrogen atoms. 5 00 c - c - °f 

 each solution were taken and sterilized by boiling before the 

 alcohol was added. 0 ' The fungus used for these experiments 

 was Aspergillus orizac. In order to distribute as closely as 

 possible an equal number of spores upon the different flasks some 

 spores were suspended in 10 c.c. sterilized water and after well 

 shaking each time 1 c.c. was added to each solution. The flasks 

 remained in a room whose temperature (from 27th January to 15th 

 February) ranged between 5 0 and I5°C. The fungoid mass was 

 collected after 18 days on a weighed filter and after being 

 well washed, was dried at lOO°C. The results were as fol- 

 lows : 



(1) Each solution contained further 0.1% monopotassium phosphate and 0.02% 

 magnesium sulphate. 



