AbstractBy a two‐step procedure consisting first of digestion with hot water and then ammoniation at elevated temperature it is possible to introduce nearly 4% of bound nitrogen into whole bagasse. the hemicellulose constituent of bagasse is labile to ammoniation while the α ‐cellulose and lignin are not attacked. the nitrogenous substances can be quantitatively extracted with water. They consist of 70–80% caustic‐stable nitrogen which is found, by paper chromatography, to include imidazoles.