The occurrence of betaine in the muscles of invertebrates

Betaine, or trimethylglycocoll, was isolated from the muscle tissue of two varieties of mollusc, Pecten irradians, the common scallop, and Sycotypus canaliculatus, the periwinkle.

The tissues used were the adductor muscle of the Pecten and the large pedal muscle of the Sycotypus. The manner of treatment was the same in both cases. The muscles were finely ground, extracted with several changes of water and the concentrated extract freed of colloidal material by precipitation with alcohol and by the regular Kutscher manipulation with tannin. The portion precipitated by phosphotungstic acid was fractioned by precipitation with silver nitrate and barium hydroxide and from the resulting filtrate, betaine was crystallized as the free base and hydrochloride. In both cases, the compound was identified by the melting points of the hydrochloride, picrate and chloroplatinate and by the analyses of the hydrochloride and chloroplatinate.