The Ether-soluble Substances of Cabbage Leaf Cytoplasm

Abstract

Deribbed green leaves of un-headed Brassica oleraceae were minced with an equal volume of distilled water and squeezed through line silk. The juice so obtained was heated to 70[degree] and the eoagulum filtered in a Buckner press. Ether-soluble substances in the residue always showed a ratio to the proteins present of about 1:3 and constituted 1/5, by weight, of the total cytoplasmic solids. Somewhat more than 1/2 of the ether-soluble fraction consisted of one or more hydrocarbons and alcohols. The remainder of the fraction was made up of Ca salts of glyceride-phosphoric acids, the principal one being a diglyceride acid with a structural formula of the type accepted for lecithin, the Ca holding the position which choline has in the lecithin molecule. Another compound may be a Ca salt of a monoglyceridephosphoric acid of similar structural formula. These salts may constitute stages in the synthesis of plant lecithins.