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GLUTEN

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 145 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GLUTEN , a tough, tenacious, ductile, somewhat elastic, nearly tasteless and greyish-yellow albuminous substance, obtained from the See also:

flour of See also:wheat by washing in See also:water, in which it is insoluble. Gluten, when dried, loses about two-thirds of its See also:weight, becoming brittle and semi-transparent; when strongly heated it crackles and swells, and See also:burns like See also:feather or See also:horn. It is soluble in strong acetic See also:acid, and in See also:caustic alkalis, which latter may be used for the See also:purification of See also:starch in which it is See also:present. When treated with • r to • 2 % See also:solution of hydrochloric acid it swells up, and at length forms a liquid resembling a solution of See also:albumin, and laevorotatory as regards polarized See also:light. Moistened with water and exposed to the See also:air gluten putrefies, and evolves See also:carbon dioxide, See also:hydrogen and sulphuretted hydrogen, and in the end is almost entirely resolved into a liquid, which contains leucin and ammonium phosphate and acetate. On See also:analysis gluten shows a See also:composition of about 53 % of carbon, 7 % of hydrogen, and See also:nitrogen 15 to 18%, besides See also:oxygen, and about r % of See also:sulphur, and a small quantity of inorganic See also:matter. According to H. Ritthausen it is a mixture of glutencasein (i.iebig's See also:vegetable See also:fibrin), glutenfibrin, gliadin (Pflanzenleim), glutin or vegetable See also:gelatin, and mucedin, which are all closely allied to one another in chemical composition. It is the gliadin which confers upon gluten its capacity of cohering to See also:form elastic masses, and of separating readily from associated starch. In the so-called gluten of the flour of See also:barley, See also:rye and See also:maize, this "See also:body is absent (H. Ritthausen and U. Kreusler).

The gluten yielded by wheat which has undergone See also:

fermentation or has begun to 'sprout is devoid of toughness and See also:elasticity. These qualities can be restored to it by kneading with See also:salt; See also:lime-water or See also:alum. Gluten is employed in the manufacture of gluten See also:bread and biscuits for the diabetic, and of See also:chocolate, and also in the See also:adulteration of See also:tea and See also:coffee. For making bread it must be used fresh, as otherwise it decomposes, and does not knead well. Granulated gluten is a See also:kind of See also:vermicelli, made in some starch manufactories by mixing fresh gluten with twice its weight of flour, and granulating by means of a See also:cylinder and contained stirrer, each armed with spikes, and revolving in opposite directions. The See also:process is.completed by the drying and sifting of the granules.

End of Article: GLUTEN

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