Abstract
Although phytin in cereals had long been considered to be hardly soluble in water, it was known recently that it was extracted considerably by water. But, as aqueous extracts of barley and wheat gave negative results in the determinations of phytin-phosphorus, phytinin these cereals was supposed to be hardly soluble in water. By extracting barley and wheatby varying pH solutions prepared from hydrochloric acid or sodium hydroxide and deter-mining various types of phosphorus in these extracts, it was indicated that, as phytin inthese cereals was strongly decomposed by phytase during extraction by water, no ferrphytate appeared in the determination of phytin-phosphorus in these extracts. Similarexperiments with several other kinds of cereals indicated that cereal grains having strongphytase activity had the same properties as barley or wheat and that from those having weakphytase activity considerable amounts of phytin were extracted by water in the form beingdetermined as phytin-phosphorus.
