Some properties of the reducing material in certain fractions of normal urines

Abstract

I. The sugars in "fasting" human urines were freed from interfering substances by treating the urines with basic lead acetate followed by HgSO4-BaCO3. By treating the filtrate with Cu-lime 2 fractions were obtained: the regenerated Cu-lime precipitate, which contained most of the carbohydrate material, and the Cu-lime precipitate. By applying a mycological method of sugar analysis to these fractions the free sugars and the sugars produced on hydrolysis were detd. The regenerated precipitate contained glucose, galactose and minimal amounts of fructose as free sugars. Glucose and galactose were produced on acid hydrolysis. No free sugar was found in the filtrate and glucose only was produced in significant amts. on acid hydrolysis. Comparison of the loss in non-fermentable reducing material with the fermentable sugar produced by acid hydrolysis indicated that a portion of the sugar which was released by hydrolysis was contained in reducing compounds.[long dash]II. The sugars produced on acid hydrolysis of the urine passed after meals consisting mainly of protein, of fat, of polysaccharides and of fruit were determined. The urine was prepared for analysis by clearing with basic Pb acetate followed by HgSO4-BaCO3 and removing the free sugars by fermentation before hydrolysis. The sugars produced on hydrolysis were precipitated by Cu-lime and regenerated with H2SO4. By mycological analysis it was established that the increase in sugar observed was due almost entirely to glucose. Galactose was also present. Comparison of the sugars produced by acid hydrolysis alone with those produced by acid hydrolysis following a preliminary oxidation by hypoiodite, showed that about 1/3 of the "hydrolyzable" was reducing in nature and that a considerable proportion was probablv lactose.