Search

When screening urine of psychomotorically retarded children by 2-dimensional paper chromatography we found large amounts of an unknown product. After isolation this compound was identified as 3-methylxanthine by using multiple-analytical techniques. Ultraviolet spectra and the major mass spectra peaks are reported for the identified compound and also for 1-methylxanthine. The latter substance also occurs in urine, especially at older age. Another urinary compound is 7-methylxanthine. Evidence is presented that 3-methylxanthine and 7-methylxanthine are metabolites from theophylline and theobromine, occurring in stimulants such as tea and chocolate; 1-methylxanthine probably originates from coffee. Some quantitative data concerning high excretory levels of 3-methylxanthine and 1-methylxanthine are given.

Cacao beans must be subjected to fermentation before they are used in making chocolate, and their commercial value is related to a proper procedure. Saccharomyces rosei, Hansenula anomala, Pichia fermentans, Pichia membranaefaciens , and Trichosporon cutaneum were found in fermenting cacao beans. All species isolated during the investigation grew on cacao pulp, but only S. rosei, H. anomala , and P. fermentans exhibited fermenting capacity on the sugars of cacao pulp. Species of the genus Saccharomyces were identified as the agents responsible for the alcoholic phase of the cacao fermentation.

Die Pektin-Methylesterase wurde aus Kakaofruchtfleisch (Amazon) isoliert und teilweise gereinigt, wobei die Fermentaktivitat sich mit zunehmender Reife der Kakaobohne erhohte.

The general practitioner as well as the allergist is well aware of the commoner forms of allergy in childhood—asthma, eczema, and seasonal pollinosis, to name some. It is the purpose of this paper to call to your attention some of the more uncommon, sometimes bizarre and perplexing manifestations of allergy in children. These conditions may also occur in adults, but are then more often more easily tracked down because of the adult's greater ability to correlate his symptoms with his food habits. Since knowledge is for the most part the accumulation of past experience, this probably can best be accomplished by describing a few such cases.

Besides d -fructose, d -glucose, sucrose, melibiose, raffinose, manninotriose, and stachyose (1), the following results were obtained: 1. 1. The presence of planteose [O-α- d -galactopyranosyl-(1 → 6)-O-β- d -fructofuranosyl-(2 → 1)α- d -glucopyranoside] (23), verbascotetraose, and verbascose [O-α- d -galactopyranosyl-(1 → 6)-O-α- d -galactopyranosyl-(1 → 6)-O-α- d -galactopyranosyl-(1 → 6)-O-α- d -galactopyranosyl-(1 → 2) β- d -fructofuranoside] has been discovered in Caracas cacao beans. 2. 2. There have been found: (a) a heptose and an oligosaccharide (Unknown VI) which gave a blue color with orcinol reagent; (b) an oligosaccharide (Unknown VII), which gave a yellow color with p-anisidine; (c) several unidentified sugars (Unknown II–IV), which reacted like ketose and were faster moving on paper chromatography than d -fructose. 3. 3. A d -glucose-containing reducing, fermentable oligosaccharide (Unknown V) was also present. 4. 4. Free glycerol, meso-inositol, and an unidentified sugar alcohol (Unknown I) were also demonstrated to be present in cacao beans.

This paper is devoted to a study of multiple food allergy, here defined as sensitivity to three or more foods. The purpose of the study is to report findings obtained from a study of 250 private patients and to show what type of persons develop this condition, how it affects them, and what their common allergens are. It was found that multiple food allergy occurs in both sexes and at all ages but is more common in boys than in girls and more common in women then in men. The clinical manifestations were much like those caused by the more familiar inhalant allergy but with a much more widespread constitutional disturbance. The great majority of patients (86%) also reacted to such air-borne allergens as molds, pollens, house dust, and animal epithelials. This indicates that food allergy and inhalant allergy are fundamentally the same phenomenon. The common food allergens were such everyday foods as milk, chocolate, corn, egg, tomato, peanut, and citrus fruits.

Cacao was introduced into West Africa in the latter years of the last century and for a time remained relatively free from pests and diseases. It is, in fact, only recently that two major scourges have developed to a point where they are threatening the future of the cacao industry in the Gold Coast and Nigeria. The first, the cacao Mirids (Sahlbergella singularis, Hagl., and Distantiella theobroma, Dist.) is outside the range of the present paper. The second, and most important, is a virus disease, known as “Swollen Shoot”, which is transmitted from tree to tree by at least three species of mealybugs of the family Pseudococcidae.