=179. Separation with Diastase.=—Diastase or malt extract at a temperature of about 65° rapidly renders starch soluble. Cereals, potato meal and other starch-holding bodies are dried, first at a low temperature, and extracted with ether or petroleum to remove fat. The material is then rubbed up with water, boiled, cooled to 65°, and treated with malt extract (diastase) prepared as given below. One kilogram of ground green malt is mixed with one liter of glycerol and an equal quantity of water, and allowed to stand, with frequent shaking, for eight days. After that time the mixture is filtered, first through a small filter press and afterwards through paper. In case no filter press is at hand the mixture may be pressed in a bag and the liquor obtained, filtered. Malt extract obtained in this way will keep its diastatic properties for a long time. In its use, blank determinations must be made of the dextrose produced by treating equal portions of it with hydrochloric acid. For three grams of starchy material twenty-five cubic centimeters of the malt solution should be used and the mixture kept at 65° for two hours.[146] =180. Method in Use at the Halle Station.=—The method of separating starch from cereals, potatoes and other starch-holding materials, employed at the Halle station, is essentially the same as already described.[147] The malt extract used is prepared immediately beforehand, inasmuch as no preservative is added to it. It can be quickly prepared by digesting, for a short time at not above 50°, 100 grams of finely ground dried malt with one liter of water and separating the extract by filtration. This extract will keep only a few hours. The material in which the starch is to be determined is dried and extracted with ether. From two to four grams of the extracted material, according to the amount of starch which it contains, are boiled for half an hour with 100 cubic centimeters of water, cooled to 65°, treated with ten cubic centimeters of malt extract and kept at the temperature named for half an hour. It is then again boiled for fifteen minutes, cooled to the temperature mentioned and again treated with malt extract as above. Two treatments with malt extract are usually sufficient to bring all the starch into solution. Finally it is again boiled and the volume completed to 250 cubic centimeters and thrown upon a filter. Two hundred cubic centimeters of the filtrate are converted into dextrose by boiling with hydrochloric acid, and the rest of the analysis is conducted in the usual manner. The dextrose value of the quantity of malt extract used must be determined upon a separate portion thereof, and the quantity of dextrose found deducted from the total amount obtained in the analysis. [Illustration: FIGURE 47. AUTOCLAVE FOR STARCH ANALYSIS.]