Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1953-08-10
Corn May Be Improved
Greatly by Three Acids
Its Enrichment Would Be
Valuable, Although Costly
By Thomos R. Henry

BY Thomos R. Henry
Corn, which supplies the essential
proteinS for millions over the world, can
be improved greatly as food for man
by addition of minute amounts Of three
amino acids.
A fortified corn meal ration, it has
been demonstrated, can increase the
growth rate of young rats as much as
IS per cent above that achieved on the
grain alone.
This has been shown, according to a
report to the American Chemical So
ciety here by DR.. Barnett Sure and his
colleagues at the University Of Arkan-
saS. They worked in cooperation with
the Central American Bureau Of Nutri-
ton at Guatemala City.
Corn constitutes a major ingredient
of human diet in the United States. a
great deal of Latin America, and all
over the African continent. From 1t
must be obtained both the carbofy-
drates which supply energy and the
nitrogen-containing proteins which con-
Stitute the building stones of the body.
But these latter. like all plant proteins.
are not made ideally for mans use, as
are those obtained from meat.
Deficient in Essential Acids.
For the past 20 years nutritionists
have recognized that corn proteins are
deficient in lysine and tryptophan, two
of the II amino acids, from which pro-
teins are built which are essential to
humans. Mere addition of these, how
ever, does not solve the problem, &C
cording to the report of DR.. Sure and
hic ocSnNiotoS TOIJn1iShnd iN, Tho ThoyNo
ical Society's Journal of Agricultural
and Food Chemistry. They must be
properly incorporated in the protein
molecule before their effect becomes
apparent in the diet. This is &C
complished, the Arkansas University
chemists found, by adding to them small
amounts of third amino acid, threo-
nine, which seems to act as an activator.
These experiments followed success
full work of United States Public Health
Service scientists on the fertilization of
rice with essential proteins. Rice is the
major substance in the diet of the
Orient and it's deficiencies in amino
acids, different from those of corn,
cause a serious nutrition problem among
people too poor to afford much meat.
Corn is in very much the same cate
CORY.
Actual enrichment of corn, the re-
port concludes, would be of enormous
value. 1t will not be economically
feasible, however without cheap, large
scale commercial production of the
three necessary amino acids.
Powerful Anaesthetics Found.
A new group of local aIlaestheticS,
probably the most powerful yet found,
has just been announced to the Ameri-
can Association for the Advancement
of Science here.
One, for example, produced COM
plete anaesthesia of the eyeballs Of
rabbits in a solution containing only
three ten thousandths of one per cent.
A "A per cent procaine solution was
required to give the same degree Of
painleSSneSS. The procaine anaeStheSia
lasted, on an average, "a minutes.
The new anaesthetic's effect lasted
eight minutes. The amount of the
actual material used in contact with
the eyeball for one minute was less
than two millionths Of gram, or a
-millionth OF an ounce.
This new family are the so-called
thiolbenzoates. They are based on
the molecule of procaine, synthetic
anaesthetic with the properties of CO.
caine but much less toxic, which is
widely used in some form in dentistry
and wherever else local pain killing
is required. The new drugs have been
developed by DR.. F. P. Luduena and
his associates of the Sterling Winthrop
Research Institute of Rensselaer,, N. Y.
The extraordinary properties of the
thiolbenzoates have been reported be-
fore. The new drugs, however, appear
to be many times more potent and
have been achieved by substituting
sulphur atoms for oxygen in the mole
Guile.
Like all local anaestheticS, the new
ones have some toxicity. 1t is low.
however, compared to their remarkable
anaesthetic activity, and the expert
ments on animals indicate a consid-
erably greater margin of safety than
is possessed by any Of the procaine
drugs.
Many more animal experiments will
be essential, however, before the new
anaesthetics can be introduced into
medical or dental practice. 1t is de-
sired, for one thing, to establish the
lowest possible thresholds Of anaes-
theSia.