CONSTITUENTS OF BAMBOO SHOOTS. 
45 
left, upon evaporation, a slightly yellowish powder. This 
residue was found to be slightly soluble in water, and easily 
so in ammonia, from which it separated in a crystalline form 
when the solvent passed away. It not only gave Weidel’s 
colour-reaction, but also Hoppe-Seyelrs’ 1 2 as well as Scherer- 
KernerV xanthine-reactions. Hence, the residue consisted of 
xanthine. 
Furthermore, I found that an alcoholic extract of dried bamboo 
shoots produced, upon standing, a pretty large quantity of fine 
crystals, which were found to produce oxalic acid and ammonia 
when boiled with caustic potash. The study of the nature of 
these crystals, which very likely will prove to be allantoin , will 
be deferred to future investigations. 
The chief interest attached to the investigation undertaken, is 
the finding of a pretty large quantity of tyrosine contained in 
bamboo shoots, since it is the first time, so far as my knowledge 
goes, that so much of it has been isolated from a plant belong¬ 
ing to gramineas. 
The xanthine and hypoxanthine bodies above described might 
perhaps be partly formed from nucleine during the extraction of 
the material, since A. Kossel 3 found that nucleine undergoes 
a partial decomposition even when simply heated with water. 
Whether or not this is so, the result of the investigation may be 
looked upon as giving further support to A. Kossel’s assumption 
that xanthine and hypoxanthine bodies either pre-formed or in 
a combined state in nucleine, are widely distributed in the 
organisms of animals and plants. It verifies, at the same time, 
E. Schulze’s 4 recommendation of the application of mercuric 
nitrate for the investigation of the regressive products of alb¬ 
uminoids in plants. 
1 Hoppe-Seyler, Handbuch der physiologisch- u. pathologisch-chemischen 
Analyse, 5th edition, p. 148. 
2 Neubauer, Harn-Analyse. 1876, p. 25. 
3 Zeitschrift für physiologische Chemie. Vol. Ill, p. 2gi ; Vol, IV. p. ego; 
Vol. VI p. 152. 
4 Ibid, g, p. 443. 
