The reduction of nitrates in animal tissues

Abstract

IT has long been known that many animal tissues contain systems capable of reducing nitrates to nitrites. By means of the Griess-Ilosvay reagent he found nitrite in the white matter of the brain, the lungs, bronchi, parotids, small intestine, medullary substance of the kidney, adrenals, testicles, and lymph glands. He found it absent from the grey matter of the brain, the liver, stomach, spleen, cortex of the kidney, muscle and blood. He showed, moreover, that certain tissues which normally contained no nitrite were able to form it when ground with nitrates; and also that if the animal had been fed on food free from nitrates no nitrite was found in any of the tissues.