Nitrogenous constituents of condensed milk, with special reference to total non-protein nitrogen, urea nitrogen and uric acid.

• Main Author: Mathis, Bess Burton
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository 1920
• Subjects: Condensed milk; Urea; Carbonic acid
• Online Access: https://ir.library.louisville.edu/etd/921; https://doi.org/10.18297/etd/921; https://ir.library.louisville.edu/context/etd/article/1920/viewcontent/614.pdf

The most important non-protein nitrogenous constituents of milk are urea, creatinine, creatine, and uric acid. Urea is the diamide of carbonic acid and is the chief end-product, so far as nitrogen is concerned, of the physiological metabolism of the proteins of the foods and tissues. It has long been considered a matter of greatest importance to ascertain in what organ or tissues urea is formed. Investigations have gone so far as to demonstrate that it arises in part, at least, in the liver – that the liver cells are able to convert ammonium carbonate into urea which is then given to the blood and excreted by the kidney. It occurs in urine in relatively large quantities (two per cent), and is found also in slight quantities in other secretions – in milk, in traces, and in sweat. Urea is present normally in the blood in an amount equal to .028 per cent, and it has been shown that the tissues generally contain urea in about the same concentration.