PUTREFACTION PRODUCTS OF INDIGESTION By Dr. George S. Weger

The bacterial action that results in putrefactive Feces process is confi ned almost entirely to the large intestine and is concerned chiefl y with proteins. The feces represent the residual food mass Putrefactive decomposition results in the formation of that remains in the large intestine after the full many products the most important of which are indol, exercise of the digestive functions. Fecal matter is composed of the following substances: skatol, paracresol, phenol, para-oxphenylpropionic acid, para-oxyphenylacetic acid, volatile fatty acids, 1. Food residues hydrogen, and carbon dioxide besides proteoses, peptones, peptides, ammonia, and amino acids. a. Those portions of food which have escaped absorption. Indol, skatol, phenol, and paracresol appear in part in the urine as ethereal sulphuric acids. The extent of b. That part of the diet either not digested or putrefaction in the intestine is roughly determined by incapable of being absorbed. the amount of potassium indoxyl sulphate found in the urine, and this is eliminated in the form of indican after 2. The remains of the digestive and intestinal going through certain chemical changes in the body. secretions not destroyed or reabsorbed. Skatol, of less importance as a product of putrefaction, 3. Substances excreted into the intestinal tract such as occurs in smaller amount and is less toxic than indol. salts of calcium, iron and other elements. Most of the substances named above, while present in intestinal decomposition, are of lesser consequence 4. The bacterial fl ora of the intestinal tract. than either skatol or indican and are therefore not separately considered. Hydrogen sulphide is always 5. Cellular elements, which in pathological conditions present. may include blood, pus, mucus, serum and parasites. It is claimed by some that putrefactive processes in the human intestine are retarded by the ingestion of a 6. As abnormalities - enteroliths, gallstones, and carbohydrate diet because the organisms that produce pancreatic calculi. protein decomposition prefer a carbohydrate medium The amount of fecal discharge depends on the if it is available. If this were true, it is in my opinion amount and kind of food ingested. A heavy vegetable due to the deterrent infl uence of the acids that result diet gives the greatest residue. from carbohydrate fermentation. The formation and absorption of the products of either putrefactive or acid The following table, taken from Hawk’s fermentation cause a toxemia, which can be prevented Practical Physiological Chemistry, gives the by proper feeding as explained in chapters dealing with percentage of weight of dried fecal residue as the subject of diet and overfeeding. compared with the amount of food ingested. Percent meals, materially alters the reaction of feces from Dry Matter neutral or slight alkalinity. A normal stool should be formed and pasty. A Milk - nursing infant 15.0 thin, watery stool usually signifi es a pathological Milk - adult 28.0 condition. The formation of dry, hard fecal masses called Meat 29.0 scybala, if not caused by a spastic bowel, is usually due Bread 25.0 to the continuous ingestion of the same diet without Potatoes 15.0 suffi cient variations. Such diet may be thoroughly Cabbage 4.4 digested and all its liquids absorbed. It is our Mixed Diet 26.0 opinion that a spastic bowel and hard, dry, dumpy stools accompany irritation of the intestinal mucosa, the result of fermentation, and defi ciency of normal The color of the stools depends largely on the bile intestinal secretions. This condition should, therefore, pigments, the most common of which is bilirubin. The be considered pathological. In fact, it is quite chlorophyll of certain vegetables and the coloring common in colitis. The food residue is found on matter in berries also color the feces. Black stools analysis to contain a great variety of unusable waste follow the ingestion of bismuth, and green stools are materials. Macroscopical and microscopical analyses caused by calomel. The odor of normal feces is due are of diagnostic value, especially in parasitic and microbic infections and when blood is found in the to the presence of indol and skatol, while hydrogen stool. sulphide and other waste elements of decomposition The intestine of the newly born is quite sterile. give the most offensive odor. There is less However, this is changed within a few hours after the disagreeable odor from a fruit and vegetable diet, more fi rst food is taken, so that a great percentage of the when carbohydrate is added and the most offensive feces soon consists of bacterial masses. odor when protein and the less perfect the digestion, The gas-forming organisms are Bacillus coli, the worse the odor. It is easy to detect by the odor of Bacillus lactis aerogenes, and Bacillus Welchii. Final the stools whether or not an infant’s digestive system conclusions concerning gas formation in the bowels is normal, or if the food is wrong. The adult may, by should not be formed without considering the factor the same method, determine the state of his digestion of diet as of greater importance than the bacteria that and the condition of the colon and thus be warned to are always present but do not always cause gas. Nor modify or change his diet in order to avoid the do different individuals on the same diet or with the consequences of intestinal putrefaction. same bacterial infestations react exactly alike. Many The normal reaction of the feces is slightly factors are to be considered that cannot possibly be alkaline. It is said that acid reaction of the feces is most demonstrated or evaluated by chemical or likely to be caused by a vegetable diet. If this were microscopial analyses. true in spite of the fact that vegetables and fruit are Feces are excreted even when no food is being basically alkaline in reaction, it must be due to the taken into the body. Fasting feces are usually of power such food has of encouraging elimination pitch-like consistency. They have a nitrogen value, of the toxic or acid end-products of digestion and indicating that tissue waste fi nds its way into the metabolism, and the assistance vegetable residues intestinal tract, very likely in most part through the render in absorbing and carrying these acids out of fi ltering and depurating agency of the liver cells which, the system. Some such action should be credited to in purifying the blood stream, hold back unusable vegetables if for no other reason that neither a high waste which is emptied into the intestines by way of nor a low protein diet, fasting, nor drinking water with the gall ducts and gallbladder.