Book Reviews COMPREHENSIVE BIOCHEMISTRY• VOL. 17: CARBOHYDRATE METABOLISM, Edi,ted by Marcel Florkin and Elmer H. Stotz. American Elsevier Pub- lishing Co., Inc. New York, N.Y. 1969. $08 pages, indexed. Price $17.00. Vol. 17 of this series, "Carbohy- drate Metabolism," is divided into seven chapters. The first four of these concern themselves with review- ing the major aspects of carbohydrate metabolism commencing with a brief discussion of the mechanisms of in- testinal transport of simple sugars. The second chapter on glycogen, starch, and cellulose synthesis and breakdown is an extensive and well- referenced ($51) discussion of the individual enzymes concerned with particular emphasis being placed on phosphorylase and glycogen synthe- tase. Chapters III and IV deal with Glycolysis and Hexose-Monophos- phate Oxidation, respectively, with primary emphasis again being placed on the regulation and mechanism of the enzymes involved in each bio- chemical process. The remaining chapters deal with more specialized areas of carbohy- drate metabolism which are more 199 often found as the subjects of sep- arate reviews or monographs. The first of these deals with the metabo- lism of carbohydrate in brain tissue, followed by an interesting review of aldonic and uronic acids. The last chapter, "The Metabolism of Gly- cosaminoglygans," concerns itself with amino sugars and mucopolysac- charides. In general, the material in this vol- ume is largely restricted to mam- malian metabolism of carbohydrate with only limited excursions into bacterial, yeast, or higher plant bio- chemistry. As such, the first [our chapters provide interesting reading into the fa.te of carbohydrates from salivary ovamylase to the generation of high-energy phosphate com- pounds. Each author tends to pre- sent his material in a well-organized concise manner, touching on the highlights of each topic without ex- hausting detail. However, the chap- ters are well-referenced and provide ample opportunity [or the reader to obtain considerable supplemental reading material should he so desire. In general, all of the contributors to this volume bring together valu- able information in specialized areas

200 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS of inammalian carbohydrate inetabo- lism. Within the framework of the subjects covered, this reviewer found Vol. 17 to be a useful addition to the current series of "Comprehensive Biochemistry."--C^RL B. FELCEr•-- Gillette Company Research Institute IDENTIFICATION TECHNIQUES IN GAS CHROMATOC•A•'H¾, by D. A. Learh- ard and B.C. Shurlock. Wiley-Inter- science, New York. 1970. 282 pages. Price •g13.95. Although a very large number of books on gas chromatography (GC) have been published, this is the first in which identification techniques have been covered so extensively. This is not another general text on GC theory, apparatus, and tech- niques. Apart from a necessary in- troductory chapter on ,the funda- mentals of retention, it is solely a well-documented, up-to-date review of techniques for identifying com- pounds responsible for GC peaks. Topics discussed begin with the principles of retention and column selectivity and the use of retention as a tool in identification. They con- tinue with applications of chemical techniques such as selective abstrac- tion, cheinical modification, pyroly- sis, and other degradative methods, and conclude with physical and in- strumental methods of identification. The physical and instrumental meth- ods include molecular weight deter- ruination, detector response, infrared and other spectroscopic techniques, and mass spectrometry. Techniques for the effective trapping of peaks are also discussed. For each tech- nique mentioned, examples of its use are given and attention is drawn to its advantages and disadvantages and to special considerations regarding its use. The techniques covered range from those requiring simple equip- ment available to almost every chro- matographer to real-time computer processing of data from an on-line mass spectrometer. Thus, the book can be recommended to all who are interested in the qualitative aspects of GC but who have not already reached a high level of sophistication in this area.--G. J. C. FaOHNSDOaFF-- Gillette Company Research Institute