UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT O AGRICULTURE

B SERVICE

   

OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS
MAYAGUEZ, PUERTO RICO

FEDERAL EXPERIMENT STATION April 7, 1964

IN PUERTO RICO

Professor Joshue Lederberg
Genetics Department
University of Wisconsin
Madison, Wisconsin

Dear Professor Lederberg:

Dr. Warmke has asked me to assist you in your search for a
small supply of the glucoside “indican".

The two species which are reported to contain appreciable
amounts of indican are Indigofera tinctoria and I, suffruticosa.
Both of these species grow here in Puerto Rico. .

 

Our experimental plots have a stend of I, suffruticosa, but
unfortunately this legume is seeding at the present time. It has
little vegetative growth, and would not yield sufficient material
at the present time,

I. tinctoria grows wild in Puerto Rico but none could be found
near Mayaguez. We hope to collect a larze sample from the southern
part of the island within the next few weeks, ‘Ve will dry and mail
you the plant material, At that same time we will also try isolat-
ing the glucoside from another sample of I, tinctoria and if succes-
sful will mail you the indican which we cbtain.

During this long period of delay you might be able to get a small
semple of indican from the Hawaiian Experiment Station. The Poultry
Husbandry Department there fed this glucoside to chicks during their
investigation of the toxicity of I. endecaphylla,

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Yours truly,

Dhar uch’ “ Mg Mra
Murrell P,. Morris
Chemist