The isolation of a toxic substance from agenized wheat flour

Abstract

The probable identity of this substance with a substance having similar physiological properties from agenized zein is indicated. The toxic substance was isolated from an acid hydrolysate of the gluten fraction of flour and is regarded as part of a flour protein. Large-scale partition chromatography on paper-pulp columns was developed as a method of fractionation of complex mixtures. Degradation expts. suggested that the toxic substance was a derivative of methionine. The probable structure is given. Methionine peptides treated with NCl3 did not give rise to the toxic substance.