142 
Mr Parkin , On a reserve carbohydrate , etc. 
Tsuji 1 has shown that the Japanese food, “ narnakonujaku,” 
prepared from the root of an Aroid ( Conophallus Konjak) consists 
largely of this mannan. Kinoshita 2 has further investigated the 
carbohydrate in the root of the plant itself. Still more recently 
another Japanese investigator 3 has found it in the leaves of the 
same Aroid, which he names Amorphophallus Konjak 4 , and has 
also made the interesting discovery of free mannose in the leaf- 
stalks of this plant. 
Bourquelot and Herissey 5 have lately shown that the reserve 
carbohydrates of the seeds of certain leguminous plants, e.g. Cera- 
tonia siliqua, Trigonella Foenum-graecum, Medicago sativa, consist 
of a mixture of mannan and galactan or a combination of the two, 
for the carbohydrate-reserve hydrolyses fairly readily to mannose 
and galactose. 
The carbohydrate found in Lilium is perhaps identical with the 
mannan of these previous investigators. Consequently the reserve 
organs of the following monocotyledons may be considered to 
contain mannan — species of Orchis and Lilium, and the Aroid, 
Amorphophallus Rivieri. Further research will very likely prove 
that it is of much wider distribution in bulbs and tubers. 
Mannose has also been shown to be present in or obtainable 
from other vegetable matters, where it can hardly be reckoned of 
nutritive value, such as the wood of conifers 6 , orange peel 7 and 
probably the glucosides 8 , scammonin and ipomoein. 
Hence mannose seems destined to become quite an important 
sugar in plants. 
1 Tsuji, Bull. Coll. Agric. Imp. Univ. Tokyo, 1894, 2, p. 103. 
2 Kinoshita, Ibid., 1895, 2, p. 205. 
3 Tsukamoto, Ibid., 1897, 2, p. 406. I have not been able to see the original 
papers but only abstracts in the J. Chem. Soc., 1894, 1896, 1897, and in Land. Vers. 
Stat., Bd. 45, 1895, p. 433. 
4 This plant is named Amorphophallus Rivieri in the Index Kewensis. 
5 Bourquelot and H6rissey, Comp. Rend, cxxix. 1899, pp. 228, 391. 
6 Bertrand, Ibid., p. 1025. 
7 Flatau and Labb6, Bull. Soc. Chim., 1898, p. 408; Abstr. J. Chem. Soc., 1899, 
p. 445. 
8 Kromer, Abstracts, J. Chem. Soc., 1893, 1, pp. 423, 482. 
