The hydrocarbons of pig liver

CHANNON AND MARRIAN [1926] examined the unsaponifiable fraction of pig liver primarily with a view to investigating the possible presence in liver of the unsaturated hydrocarbon squalene. Their results showed that, although squalene was not present, pig liver contained a highly unsaturated hydrocarbon of ap- parently very high molecular weight, and some evidence was obtained that this hydrocarbon was of terpenoid nature. The presence of the hydrocarbon was deduced from the ready preparation of an insoluble bromide and of a hydrochloride from fractions of the unsaponifiable matter into which the more un- saturated constituents had been concentrated. Analysis of the former compound showed that it was the bromide of an unsaturated hydrocarbon. The hydrochloride however was contaminated by an impurity which could not be removed and the mean values for the C, H and Cl analyses totalled no more than 98-71 %.