THIS communication has been planned as the first of several dealing with problems in the analysis of the carbohydrate constituents of the cell wall of plants, with special reference to pectin and the hemicelluloses. Such substances yield on hydrolysis hexoses, pentoses and uronic acids, and the most important reaction employed in their proximate analysis involves distillation with 12 % hydrochloric acid, whereby hexose fractions yield a small quantity of hydroxymethylfurfuraldehyde, pentose and methylpentose fractions yield furfuraldehyde and methylfurfuraldehyde, and similarly the uronic acid fraction yields furfur- aldehyde, but in addition undergoes decarboxylation with production of carbon dioxide. The products utilised in this publication are pure uronic acids, or uronic acid derivatives, and the analytical complications due to the presence of hexoses and methylpentoses do not arise.
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Norris et al. (1935) studied this question.