NITROGEN DETERMINATION IN WHEAT LEAVES

Abstract

A survey of the more promising modifications of the Kjeldahl method for nitrogen determination indicates that the method using mercuric oxide as the catalyst as recommended by the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists is the most satisfactory. However small discrepancies were found when this method was applied to wheat leaves fractionated into soluble and protein (actually coagulable and indiffusible) nitrogen fractions. This method includes all the nitrate nitrogen in wheat leaves together with the organic nitrogen even when no pretreatment with salicylic acid is used. A simple and satisfactory method of separating coagulable and indiffusible nitrogen from soluble nitrogen in wheat leaves and seedlings is described.