COMPARATIVE BIOCHEMISTRY OF THE PROTEINS

Abstract

The early investigations of Mulder, Boussingault, Liebig and others (cf. 9) on the plant proteins led them to the belief that the different forms of plant proteins known at that time (ca. 1850) were identical to each other and to proteins of animal origin. These conclusions are readily understood when we remember that the comparative studies of these early investigators were based entirely on the results of elementary analyses for C, H, N, etc. The extensive investigations of Ritthausen (1860–1884) showed that plant proteins are dissimiliar to animal proteins. According to T. B. Osborne, Ritthausen's efforts were primarily directed at attempts to establish the identity of proteins obtained from different seeds and seemed to have been actuated by an idea that a comparatively small number of vegetable proteins occur in nature. Osborne, who began his studies on the seed proteins at about the time that Ritthausen ceased working in this