420 
Quarterly  Review  on 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
September,  1917- 
has  been  chlorinated,  and  Liquid  Petrolatum  also  chlorinated,  equal 
parts  of  each.  The  amount  of  Dichloramin  T  dissolved  in  this  mix- 
ture varies  from  5  to  10  per  cent.,  which  is  from  twenty  to  forty 
times  the  strength  of  the  Carrel-Dakin  Solution,  for  which  the 
Dichloramin  T  mixture  is  claimed  to  be  a  far  superior  substitute 
(Jour.  A.  M.  A.,  July  7,  1917,  p.  27). 
The  Proteins  of  the  Peanut  (Arachis  hypogaea). — The  in- 
creasing popularity  and  consequent  increased  production  of  the  pea- 
nut makes  a  study  of  its  proteins  especially  appropriate  at  this  time, 
a  time  of  ever  increasing  demand  for  food-stuffs.  Heretofore  the 
proteins  of  the  peanut  have  received  scant  attention.  This  investi- 
gation, undertaken  in  the  Protein  Investigation  Laboratory,  Bureau 
of  Chemistry,  Washington,  D.  C,  discloses  that  this  popular  nut 
contains  two  globulins,  arachin  and  conarachin,  as  well  as  small 
amount  of  albumin.  Oil-free  peanut  meal  was  used  in  the  investi- 
gation, obtained  by  expresion  of  raw  Virginia  peanuts  with  the  aid 
of  an  Anderson  expeller.  The  pressed  cake  was  finely  powdered 
and  remaining  oil  removed  by  percolation  with  petroleum  ether. 
Nitrogen  estimation  showed  18  per  cent,  equivatent  to  45  per  cent, 
protein.  Extraction  of  the  meal  with  10  per  cent,  solution  sodium 
chloride,  32  per  cent,  protein,  is  dissolved  at  room  temperature,  78 
per  cent,  of  which  was  obtained  in  pure  form  by  dilution  of  salt  ex- 
tract with  5  or  6  volumes  of  distilled  water,  or  by  saturation  with 
C02.  It  was  also  possible  to  obtain  these  globulins  by  dialysis  of  the 
salt  solution.  The  two  globulins  were  isolated  by  means  of  fractional 
precipitation  of  the  protein  extracted  by  salt  solution.  Arachin, 
which  predominates  among  the  globulins  in  the  peanut,  is  the  least 
soluble,  and  is  precipitated  when  in  a  10  per  cent,  solution  of  sodium 
chloride  by  the  addition  of  ammonium  sulphate  to  0.2  of  saturation. 
After  separation  of  the  arachin  by  nitration,  conarachin  is  obtained 
by  dialysis,  or  by  saturation  of  the  filtrate  with  ammonium  sulphate. 
These  two  globulins  show  quite  a  difference  in  the  sulphur  content ; 
it  being  0.40  and  1.09  per  cent,  respectively.  The  distribution  of  ni- 
trogen, particularly  in  the  precentage  of  basic  nitrogen,  presents 
likewise  a  large  difference,  the  figures  being  respectively  4.96  and 
6.55  per  cent.  The  basic  nitrogen  in  a  mixture  of  these  globulins  is 
likewise  very  high,  namely,  5.23  per  cent.  It  is  just  possible  that 
conarachin  contains  more  basic  nitrogen  than  any  other  seed  globulin 
so  far  investigated.  Judging  from  the  results  so  far  obtained  it 
seems  safe  to  predict  that  peanut  press  cake  will  be  found  very  useful 
