The vegetable proteins / by Thomas B. Osborne.

  • Osborne, Thomas B. (Thomas Burr), 1859-1929.
Date:
1924
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The vegetable proteins / by Thomas B. Osborne. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    15/180 (page 9)
    Although the proteins of plants early claimed the attention of many chemists, our present knowledge of them has not yet advanced beyond what is, in fact, a mere beginning of a serious study. The isolation and purification of vegetable proteins present so many difficulties that for a long time the available methods were too crude to enable those who under- took such work to succeed in their task. The development of the methods used by physiological chemists in their investi- gations of animal tissues, the great development of organic chemistry, and the no less important knowledge of the use of antiseptics and the action of enzymes has only recently made it possible to prosecute a study of the vegetable proteins with a reasonable prospect of success. A knowledge of the vegetable proteins is in many ways of importance to the animal physiologist, but the latter has had so many rapidly increasing lines of research opened to him during the past few years that he has had little time to give to the literature of the vegetable proteins. The writer has, therefore, thought it more important to devote the limited space of the present monograph to a discussion of the general chemical and physical properties of the vegetable proteins than to give a descriptive account of the individual proteins at present known. It is hoped that by this method of presenta- tion the opportunities offered by the vegetable proteins for obtaining a more definite knowledge of the properties of protein matter in general will be better appreciated, and that in the future the studies of vegetable and animal proteins will be brought into closer relations than in the past. T he knowledge of the chemistry of the carbohydrates has been chiefly founded on studies made with those of vegetable