ABSTRACT
Lectins or hemagglutinins are proteins which can interact in a very specific way with certain carbohydrates. The lectins can bind to free sugars or to sugar residues existing in polysaccharides, glycoproteins, or glycolipids, which may be free or may exist in bound form, for example in cell membranes. Very little is known about the function the lectins perform in the organisms in which they occur. There is growing evidence that lectins participate in the recognition processes between cells or between cells and various carbohydrate-containing molecules. Lectins are quite common in foods generally consumed in the U. S. as M. S. Nachbar and S. B. Oppenheimer have pointed out. The soybean lectin can be removed from a raw seed extract by affinity chromatography. Added to a casein diet, this extract did not cause a significantly different growth depression than did the crude extract.
