i8 
K. OSHLMA AND M. ARIIZUMI. 
extent. Zinno'^ found that cultures of a certain bacteria built Creatinin 
in the nutrient medium. Antonoff-' also reported the formation of 
Creatinin by bacteria in pepton solution. Recently, E. C. Shorey''^ found 
it in the alkaline as well as alcoholic extracts of soils. He maintained 
that the considerable portion of the isolated Creatinin has been present in 
the soil as such. According to him, nucleic acid and phytin in soils have 
some relation with the formation of Creatinin. Shortly after the Shorey's 
study, M. X. S u 1 1 i va n has found it in the vegetable kingdom for the 
first time. He determined Creatinin in wheat seeds, wheat seedlings and 
wheat bran, in rye, clover and alfalfa seeds, in mature covvpea plants and 
in potato tubers. He found also that both the planted soil and the soil 
which had not recently been cropped, contained Creatinin, but it was 
present in larger amounts in the recently cropped soil. From this point 
of view, he asserted that the presence of Creatinin in the soil is connected 
in some way with plant growth. He I'eported that Creatinin seems to 
persist for a considerable time in soil and may increase in it by accumula- 
tion, and its presence in plants and in the medium in which plants grow 
has considerable bearing on soil fertility. J. J. Skinner^^ has shown 
that Creatinin has a marked beneficial effect on plant growth by culture 
experiment. Under the direction of one of the authors K. Ebiko"^ deter- 
mined the presence of Creatinin in Lcspcdcza In-solor, Turcz., var. Typica. 
Max., which is used in Japan for fodder as well as for green manure. 
In the following pages are presented the results of our experiments 
concerning the presence of Creatinin in several leguminous seeds, which 
are generally consumed by Japanese as food stuffs. In all the legumes we 
have studied, the presence of Creatinin was fully ascertained. 
1) . Refonna med., Roma. 9, (1893) (3), P- 80G ; through Jour. Amer. Chem. Soc, 33, (191 • ), 
p. 2036. 
2) . Centrabl. Bakt., Jena, 43, ('907), p. 209. 
3) . Science, 33, (i9n), P- 3-50. 
4) . Jour. Amer. Chem. Soc, Easton, Pa. 33, (1911), PP- 2035-2042. 
5) . Bot., Gaz. 54, (1912), pp. 152-163. 
6) . Jour. Soc. Agr. & Forest., Sapporo, No. 25, 1914. 
