356  Food-Preservatives  and  Diastase.  {'^"'•/uiy'iSi*''"' 
EFFECTS  OF  FOOD-PKESERYATIVES  ON  THE  ACTION 
OF  DIASTASE.! 
By  Henry  Lbffmann  and  William  Beam. 
The  use  of  antiseptics  in  perishable  articles  of  food  has  become  quite 
general  in  recent  years,  and  has  been,  to  a  certain  extent,  the  subject 
of  legislation.  Salicylic  acid  has  been,  probably,  the  most  used,  and 
while  sanitary  authorities  of  different  countries  have,  as  a  rule,  opposed 
its  use,  there  has  been  no  positive  evidence  of  its  injurious  action,  even 
when  continued  for  some  time.  Lehmann  published  in  Pettenkofer's 
"Archives  of  Hygiene several  instances  in  which  healthy  male  adults 
had  taken  for  many  days  considerable  doses  of  this  acid  without  appa- 
rent injury.  While  there  may  be  a  legitimate  field  for  the  use  of  the 
agents  in  articles  of  food  of  a  highly  perishable  character,  and  espe- 
cially where  the  addition  is  made  known,  there  can  be  no  question 
that  their  indiscriminate  use  is  dangerous.  Independently  of  any 
directly  injurious  action,  it  is  important  to  inquire  how  far  they  may 
interfere  with  the  nutritive  or  medicinal  value  of  any  article  with 
which  they  may  be  associated.  The  matter,  has  been  brought  promi- 
nently to  our  notice  in  consequence  of  some  analyses  made  by  us  for 
the  State  Board  of  Health  of  Pennsylvania,  in  which  the  free  use  of 
salicylic  acid  in  beers  and  malt  extracts  was  detected.  Similar  results 
in  regard  to  beers  were  found  by  other  State  Boards  and  the  Depart- 
ment of  Agriculture  of  the  United  States  Government.  It  becomes 
important,  then,  to  inquire  how  far  the  presence  of  these  substances 
may  interfere  with  the  diastasic  action  ascribed  to  preparations  of 
malt.  It  must  be  noted  that  with  a  number  of  the  malt  extracts 
now  on  the  market  the  addition  of  a  preservative  has  very  little  signi- 
ficance, because,  as  prepared,  these  articles  are  merely  weak  beers,  and 
possess  no  diastasic  power.  Thus,  of  eleven  samples  tested,  including 
all  the  extracts  widely  known  in  the  market,  only  four  had  any  appre- 
ciable effect,  and  but  one  of  these  was  strikingly  efficient. 
We  have  undertaken  a  few  experiments  to  determine  what  retarding 
effect  the  common  food-preservatives  may  possess.  The  method  of 
operating  was  that  indicated  by  Drs.  Duggan  and  Coale  in  papers  in 
the  American  Chemical  Journal  and  elsewhere,  based  on  the  estima- 
tion  of  the  sugar  formed  in  presence  of  a  large  excess  of  starch. 
^Kead  at  meeting  of  Public  Analysts,  London,  May,  1888 ;  reprinted  from  the 
The  Analyst,  June,  p.  103. 
