Evening star., 1940-04-11
Of Stors, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Field, Laboratory
And Study
By Thomas r. Henry.

CINCINNATI, April ia violent orr
entail brain poison extracted from mouldy
coconuts was described to the American
Chemical Society, meeting here today,
by Drs Treat B. johnson and Joseph
G. Ambelang of Yale University.
It is of special interest, they said, be-
cause one of its chemical constituents
is a substance known as pyramidine
which Is also the basis OF one of the
vitamins which they are studying A
similar "toxoflavin" may be responsible
for widespread disease Of cattle caused
by eating mouldy cornstalks.
This poison, they reported, causes from
time to time wholesale poisonings in
some districts in Java. There 1t is the
practice to eat coconuts only after they
are covered with mould. A few hours
after eating the food the patient suffers
severe headache, dizziness and drowsiness
and finally sinks into Inconsistencies
which may end in death. The unccn-
scious stage is often accompanied by Sc
we're convulsions.
The substance itself was isolated by
Dutch chemists and is bright yellow
liquid which actually increases the res
piration of red blood corpuscles and may
be stimulant to the growth Of the
coconut mould. 1t seems to have a
specific action, however, on human and
animal brain cells.
An unknown vitamin essential to
life was described by Drs. G. c. Supplee,
r. c. Bender and c. j. Kahlenberg, New
York chemists. 1t is contained, to-
gether with three or four other vitamins,
In rice polishings, the outer coats OF the
rice grains which are removed before
they are sold.
For some time, they said, it has been
known that skin LESSONS appeared in ami
mails deprived of one of the B complex
OF vitamins. They have now found that
two vitamins are involved, one as yet
completely unknown. Both are essential
to growth and normal development of
young rats. Absence of either will pro-
duce the same skin symptoms which they
consider as unimportant in themselves
put evidence of a disturbance in some
fundamental vital process.
The skin LESSONS may appear in adult
rats. Always. however, there is pro-
nounced inanition and lack of vitality
when the unknown substance is ex-
cluded from the diet. After extended
periods, Notwithstanding the presence
in the food of all other necessary ele-
ments, the adults show high rate of
sudden and unpredictable deaths without
any previous loss of weight or evidence
of illness.
More than 1000 animals were used in
their experiments. The rice polishings,
they found, contain still another un-
known vitamin which prevents the gray
ing Of hair in rats and might have the
same effect in human beings.
Making salad oil out of grapefruit
seeds, thus affording new income for
the developing citrus industry, was
described here today by two Depart
ment of Agriculture scientists, Drs. A.
j. Nolte and H. w. Won Loesecke.
Seeds are removed before the grape
fruit is canned, leaving approximately
$1,000 tons of waste each year out of
which might be pressed about 8
million pounds of crude oil. When the
bitter taste is removed by a process
developed by the Department of Agri-
culture, the chemists said. 1t forms a
fine basis for salad dressings. It also
has wide use in the textile industry
where 1t forms part of certain fast dyes
| New advances in knowledge of the
structure and properties of cotton fibers
were reported by Drs. r. L. Whistler,
A. r. Martin and Milton Harris Of the
United States Bureau Of Standards.
Natural cotton fibers. they reported,
appear to contain in addition to cellulose
several other constituents, one of which
is similar to the proteins. Many of the
commercially important properties of
cotton, such as tensile strength, moisture
and dye absorption are related to the
presence Of small quantities of this sub
stance.
They found, the Bureau of Standards
chemists reported. that the peptic sub
stance was not intermingled nor chemi-
cally combined with the cellulose Of the
fiber but was present on the surface of
the fiber, IN the form of sausage like
casing. The cellulose, on the other hand,
was confined principally to the second
ary wall which is the commercially i'm
portant part of the fiber. It was present
in the form of innumerable fine threads,
many times smaller than the fiber itself.
The peptic substance, they found, Is
combined with calcium, magnesium,
aluminium and iron, which render it ex-
tremely insoluble. These metals can be
removed by various chemical processes,
however, and after this the outer casing
can be dissolved. Cotton fibers, freed of
their outer casing in this way, retain
their tensile strength.
The casing is allowed to remain on
the cotton, they said, during such manu-
featuring processes as carding, spinning
and weaving and in this way acts as
protective coating. It is removed by
chemical treatment just before the
dyeing process. This Is necessary since
the high acidity Of the material makes
1t much more reactive chemically than
the cellulose itself. Such reactivity in
fiuences the dyeing qualities of the
fbers.
Sees COntinuinr TraveSty