378 
LON A. HAWKINS 
the same methods of sampling and analysis were used as in a former 
study of peaches.^^ The different compounds were determined in 
the two halves of the same fruit, one portion of which had been 
inoculated with the fungus while the other was retained sterile as a 
control. In the determination of the furfurol-yielding material it 
was found that the percentage of this substance in the rotten half 
was considerably less than in the sound portion. The fungus appar- 
ently used the furfurol-yielding constituents of the apple fruit. Sev- 
eral apples were then prepared and inoculated. After two weeks the 
sound and rotten halves were sliced up and extracted with alcohol. 
The furfurol-yielding material was then determined in the extract 
and solid portions separately. The results are given in Table I. 
All data were calculated as percentage of the original wet weight of 
the portion of the apple used. 
Table I 
FerceJitage of Alcohol-soluble, Alcohol-insoluble, and Total Furfurol-yielding Material 
in Sound and Rotten Halves of Apple, Each Substance Determined in Sound 
and Rotten Halves of Same Fruit 
Alcoho 
-soluble 
Alcoho 
-insoluble 
Total 
Sound half 
Rotten half 
Sound half 
Rotten half 
Sound half 
Rotten half 
0.12 
0.18 
0.62 
0.49 
0.74 
0.67 
O.I2 
0.16 
0.71 
0.50 
0.83 
0.66 
0.14 
0.27 
I. II 
0.93 
1.25 
1.20 
From the data in Table I it is apparent that the total percentage 
of furfurol-yielding material and the percentage of alcohol-insoluble 
furfurol-yielding material were higher in the sound portion than in 
the corresponding rotten half of the apple, but that the percentage of 
alcohol-soluble furfurol-yielding material was higher in the rotten, half. 
Pentose sugars are readily soluble in 80 percent alcohol while 
most of the furfurol-yielding material in the sound apple is not. 
The increase in alcohol-soluble furfurol-yielding material during the 
early stages of the rot therefore indicates that some compounds con- 
taining pentoses were broken down. That this was due to the action 
of the fungus and not to the autolysis of the dead apple tissue was 
evident from the fact that when portions of apple in which the cells 
had been killed with chloroform were allowed to stand under aseptic 
20 Hawkins, Lon A. Some Effects of the Brown Rot Fungus upon the Compo- 
sition of the Peach. Amer. Journ. Bot. 2: 71-81. 1915. 
