INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
July, 1943
crystalline carotene from freshly opened vials. This test was frequently used on carotene samples to ensure their suitability for the stability tests. Whereas the addition of small amounts of hydroquinone (0.002 and 0.005 per cent based on the weight of oil) has been reported ineffective in protecting carotene in Wesson oil (S), at the higher levels (0.01 and 0.1 per cent), the amount of carotene remaining was increased from 43 to 73 and 81 per cent, respectively. The stability of carotene in sweet potato flour under various conditions of storage has been reported (6); at room temperature and in loosely stoppered bottles sweet potato flour had approximately 25 per cent of its original carotene after 120 days, while sweet potato flour plus 10 per cent crude cottonseed oil had 61 per cent under the same conditions. I n corpparison, the four soybean flour samples, under similar conditions of temperature and air exposure, contained from 81 to 96 per cent carotene after 169 days. Although the soybean flour samples contained only 60,000 I. U. of vitamin A (as carotene) per pound and the sweet potato flour contained almost twice that amount, it appears that carotene is more stable in soybean flour than in sweet potato flour. CONCLUSIONS
The stability of carotene is greatly influenced by the presence or absence of antioxidants contained in the solvent. I n solvents free of antioxidants, the addition of antioxidants has a strong stabilizing effect; in solvents like Wesson oil, which contain naturally occurring antioxidants, little additional effect is observed. Carotene is much more stable in solvent-extracted than in expeller-extracted soybean meal. Soybean lecithin improves the stability of carotene in soybean flour. Alfalfa carotene concentrate showed better stability in many of these products than crystalline carotene, an indica-
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tion that the naturally occurring antioxidants present in the concentrate are effective in these food products. ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This research was supported by the Horace H. Rackham Research Endowment of the Michigan State College of Agriculture and Applied Science for studies on the industrial utilization of agricultural products. I n connection with the carotene stability tests on the soybean flour preparations, we wish to thank the Department of Biological Research of the Archer-Daniels-Midland Company for supplying the soybean flour and incorporating the carotene concentrate in it. LITERATURE CITED
(1) American Chemical Society, Symposium on Nutritional Restoration and Fortification of Foods, IND.ENG. CHEM.,33, 707 (1941). (2) Barnett, H. M., News Ed. (Am. Chem. Soc.), 19,778 (1941). (3) Bauman, C. A., and Steenbock, H., J. Biol. Chem., 101, 561 (1933). (4) Dutcher, A. R., Harris, P. L., Hartzler, E. R., and Guerrant, B., J . Nutrition, 8,269 (1934). ( 5 ) Fraps, G. S., and Kemmerer, A. R., News Ed. (Am. Chem. Soc.), 19,846 (1941). (6) Mitchell, J. H., and Lease, E. J., 5. C. Agr. Expt. Sta., Bull. 333 (1941). (7) Morgal, P. W., Petering, H. G., and Miller, E. J., IND.ENQ. CHEM.33, 1298 (1941). (8) Olcott, H. S., and Mattill, H. A.,Chem. Rev., 29,257(1941). (9) Olcott, H.S., and Mattill, H. A., J . Am. C h m . SOC.,58, 1627 (1936). (10) Ibid., 58,2204 (1936). (11) Petering, H.G.,Morgal, P. W., and Miller, E. J., IND.ENG. CEEM.,32,1407 (1940). (12) Petering, H. G.,Wolman, W., and Hibbard, R. P., IND.ENG. CHEM.,ANAL.ED., 12, 148(1940). (13) Quackenbush. F. W.,Cox, R. P., and Steenbock, H , J. Bid. Chem., 145, 169 (1942). (14) Semon, W. L.,Sloan, A. W., and Craig, David, IND. ENG.CHEM., 22, 1001 (1930). (15) Smith, P. I., Soap,15, 21 (1939). APPROYBID by Station Director.
Article 600 (n. s.).
ALCHEMIST By David Teniers
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No. 151 in the Berolzheimer series of Alchemical and Historical Reproductions presents the eighteenth Teniers subject we have brought. Since it is known that the elder Teniers produced a t least one alchemical painting and that the younger Teniers painted seventeen such pictures, it is believed that this completes the series. The location of the original in this case is not known. It seems much cruder than the other Teniers paintings and various parts appear t o be copied from some of those previously reproduced. Distillation apparatus does not appear as it does in the others.
D. D. BEROLZHEIMER 50 East 41st Street New York, (17) N. Y. The lists of reproductions and directions for obtaining copies appear as followa: 1 to 96, January, 1939, page 124; 97 to 120 Janua 1941 p a p 114; 121 to 144, January, 1943, page 106. An iddition3 reproduotlon appears each month.
