THE FORMATION OF PROTEIDS IN PLANT-CELLS. 
63 
C 4 H 8 N a 03 + C 6 H ia 0 6 + 20 = 2 C 4 H 7 N 0 a + 2 C 0 a+ 3 H* 0 . 
Asparagin. Aspartic aldehyde. 
The condensation process, however, leading from this 
highly labiP—and still hypothetical—amido-aldehyde to the 
active albumen must be accompanied by a reducing process and 
by the entrance of sulfur. We may express this process by 
the following equations : 
3 C 4 H 7 N 0 2 = C ia H i7 N 3 0 4 + 2 H a O ; 
- A _ -_ A 
Aspartic aldehyde Intermediate product 
6 C i4 H i7 N, 0 4 + izH+H 2 S=C„H ii2 N i8 S 0 „ + 2 H, 0 . 
—T““" - 
Lieberkühn 1 s albumin-formula. 
For the reduction indicated in the latter equation the 
presence of glucose would be again required. 2 ) If we now make 
the assumption that under certain chemical conditions the 
aldehyde groups are prevented from acting during the condensa¬ 
tion process upon the amido-groups (which is to be expected 
under normal conditions) and that the hydrogen serving for 
reduction would transform 12 aldehyde groups into secondary 
alcoholic groups (CH OH), causing thereby a pinakon-like link¬ 
ing—then we should have in the final product—the active 
albumen—a substance of extraordinary lability, containing 12 
aldehyde- and 18 amido-groups in one molecule, and changing 
easily into another product with the loss of its aldehydic 
character—the passive albumen. 
The accumulation of asparagin is evidently connected with 
the gradual disappearance of the amido-products, directly result¬ 
ing from a decomposition of protein. This fact finds its most 
natural explanation if we recall the conclusions, to which we 
were led by the study of the nourishment of the lower fungi (see 
page 49). We had logically concluded that if different com¬ 
pounds serve to yield the same protein, then they must be trans¬ 
formed first into one and the same atomic group from which the 
protein formation can start. We had seen that this group cannot 
1) Amido-aldehydes are as we have explained in Chapt. Ill exceedingly unstable 
compounds, which may play important physiological rôles in more than one respect. 
Wolffenstein observed recently an easy transformation of amido-valeraldehyde into 
piperidin, and holds it highly probable that amido-aldehydes form the connecting 
links between the fatty series and the alkaloids in plants. 
2) On glucose as a reducing agent in neutral or even acid solutions, see Chapt. VI. 
