Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  j 
September,  1917. 
Advances  in  Pharmacy. 
423 
Kafarin,  an  Alchohol-Soluble  Protein  from  Kafir  (And- 
ropogen  sorghum) . — Until  the  present  time  no  work  has  been  done 
and  reported  concerning  the  proteins  of  kafir.  Seeds  grown  in  Kan- 
sas were  used  in  this  experimental  work,  of  the  kind  known  as  dwarf 
kafir.  The  ground  seeds  showed  1.1.7  per  cent,  of  protein,  7.9  of 
this  was  obtained  by  extraction  of  the  meal  with  boiling  alcohol. 
By  the  use  of  alcohol  ranging  from  60  to  70  per  cent,  strength, 
there  was  separated  5.2  per  cent,  of  pure  protein,  kafirin.  Kafirin 
in  many  respects  resembles  zein  from  maize,  with  this  difference, 
that  zein  is  very  soluble  in  70  per  cent,  alcohol  at  all  temperatures, 
kafirin  requires  a  large  amount  of  the  same  strength  of  alcohol  to 
effect  solution.  Kafirin  is  more  readily  soluble  in  hot  than  in  cold 
alcohol;  very  dilute  solutions  will  jelly  on  cooling.  To  avoid  this 
it  was  necessary  to  use  large  volumes  of  alcohol  and  to  filter  the  ex- 
tractions while  hot.  Kafirin  is  easily  coagulated  while  an  alcoholic 
solution  of  zein  does  not  when  heated.  It  also  differs  from  zein  in 
the  percentage  of  amide  and  basic  nitrogen  being  3.46,  2.97  and  1.04 
and  0.49  per  cent,  respectively.  There  is  also  a  difference  in  the 
amounts  of  diamino  acids  yielded.  Kafirin  contains  lysine  and 
tryptophane,  which  are  absent  in  zein,  and  very  necessary  for 
animal  nutrition  (Jour.  Bio.  Chem.,  vol.  28,  59,  through  Jour.  Frank- 
lin Institute,  July,  1917,  p.  122). 
Some  Proteins  from  the  Jack  Bean  (Canavalia  ensiformis). 
— Canavalin  and  concanavalin,  two  globulins,  and  an  albumin,  have 
been  obtained  from  this  bean.  The  air-dried  jack  bean  meal  showed 
the  amount  of  protein  to  be  23  per  cent.,  and  15  per  cent,  of  this  is 
extracted  from  the  meal  by  plain  distilled  water.  Two  per  cent, 
solution  of  solution  of  sodium  chloride  increases  the  amount  of  ex- 
traction to  18.5  per  cent.  0.2  per  cent,  solution  of  KOH  extracted 
almost  all  of  the  protein,  or  22.3  per  cent.  A  mixture  of  meal  and 
three  times  its  weight  of  10  per  cent,  solution  of  sodium  chloride, 
and  then  ground  in  mill  to  break  up  cells  gave  an  extraction  of  20.5 
per  cent,  protein.  Dialysis  of  salt  extracts  of  the  bean  against  dis- 
tilled water  gave  10  per  cent,  of  pure  dried  globulin,  based  on 
weight  of  the  meal  used.  This  globulin  is  so  very  soluble  in  salt 
solutions  that  it  cannot  be  precipitated  by  diluting  these  solutions 
with  water.  The  globulin  of  the  jack  bean  is  not  identical  with 
phaseolin,  which  substance  was  isolated  by  Osborne  from  the  kidney 
bean  (Phaseolus  vulgaris).  Concanavalin,  the  globulin  present  in 
the  jack  bean  in  the  smaller  amount,  and  which  is  less  soluble,  was 
