Piatt STORRS AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 
much more active one is present in the pancreatic juice, and by 
means of this the starch of food is converted into a kind of 
sugar known as maltose (malt sugar), which is soluble. Before 
being passed into the blood, however, the maltose is still fur- 
ther changed into another kind of sugar known as dextrose, or 
glucose. 
Whatever starch is not thus converted into sugar by diges- 
tion is lost as food. While raw starch is not readily digested 
by man, cooked starch is in general quite easily disposed of by - 
persons in normal health. On the other hand, persons with 
weak digestive powers sometimes find it difficult to digest 
starch even though it is properly cooked. Any process, there- 
fore, which accomplishes the necessary conversion of starch to 
sugar just explained, to that extent relieves the digestive 
organs; and so much of the starch as is thus converted may be 
said to be at least partially ‘‘ predigested.’’ 
The starch of grain may be to a certain extent converted 
into sugar artifically. When seeds of grain begin to sprout the 
starch present is transformed into sugar by the action of a fer- 
ment, known as diastase, which nature apparently provides for 
the benefit of the sprouting germ. This ferment is able to 
change into maltose a much larger quantity of starch than that ~ 
of the grain in which it is formed. When barley is sprouted 
and the growth arrested before the sprout has reached any con- 
siderable length, a product known as malt is formed. ‘This 
malt may be ground and mixed with a large amount of other 
grain, and if the mass is moistened and kept at a warm tempera- 
ture the ferment in the malt will act upon the starch of the 
added grain and convert some of it into malt sugar. In this 
way the so-called predigested or malted foods may be produced. 
The extent to which the starch of, cereals is actually converted 
to sugar by such process is considered later. 
It should be especially noted here, however, that the kind of 
sugar thus produced is chiefly malt sugar (or maltose) and not 
grape sugar (or glucose), though the latter might be present 
in small quantity if the fermentation were continued long 
enough. But long continued fermentation would be likely to 
produce undesirable flavors, It is quite likely that where grape 
sugar is present in considerable quantity it has been added in 
commercial form rather than produced by the action of ferments. 
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