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INTRODUCTION CONTRADICTORY evidence has been published concerning breed and/or strain differences in the utilization of, and requirements for vitamins and other nutrients. Lamoreux and Hutt (1939) reported that White Leghorn chicks survived longer on diets deficient in, or lacking vitamin B1 than did Rhode Island Red chicks. F1 progeny from a cross of White Leghorn males × Rhode Island Red females were intermediate between the parents with respect to a deficiency of the vitamin. Scrimshaw et al. (1945) found that the average thiamine content of the egg yolk of White Leghorns, Rhode Island Reds and Barred Plymouth Rocks, fed on the same ration, was 279, 167 and 175 mcgm. per 100 grams, respectively. They concluded that White Leghorns use the thiamine in the ration more efficiently. Mayfield et al. (1955) also found that White Leghorns deposited more thiamine in their eggs than did New Hampshires fed the same ration. Howes…

The absorption and conversion of β-carotene under controlled conditions was investigated in 28 retinitis pigmentosa and 10 control subjects and found to be abnormally low in the former. The absorption and conversion of β-apo-8′-carotenal, which is a possible intermediate in the stepwise conversion of β-carotene to vitamin A, was found to be more efficient in 13 affected subjects investigated. The implication of this is discussed in relation to the consistently low blood vitamin A and visual cell degeneration found in this disease. High blood levels of vitamin A were found to produce unexpectedly large improvements in dark adaptation 4 hr after oral administration of the vitamin in the early stages of the disease.

SummaryTen to 20% of β-carotene was destroyed by incubating C-14 labeled β-carotene with various tissues from the rat. All tissues studied had the ability to transfer radioactivity from β-carotene to sterols, saponifiable material and steam-distillable compound or compounds. ATP, DPN, nicotinamide and MgCl2 were cofactors that increased β-carotene destruction by cell-free homogenates. A negligible amount of CO2 was liberated during incubation.The author thanks Mrs. Phyllis Spiker for technical assistance.

Disappearance of aqueous suspensions of beta carotene, during 3-hour incubations in the ligated intestine, was studied in three trials involving 120 rats. When 800 p.p.m. of iodinated casein was added to the diet, disappearance was significantly increased. Blood data indicate that this can be attributed to more rapid conversion of carotene to vitamin A. Adding 400 p.p.m. of iodinated casein or either 55 or 110 p.p.m. of methimazole to the diet did not affect carotene disappearance.

Methods are given for determining individual tocopherols in natural oils and food-stuffs. These methods consist of either a single-dimensional separation on zinc carbonate-impregnated paper, or this separation in conjunction with a second-dimensional partition separation on paraffin-coated paper. Chromatographic runs are short and rapid and can be made without preliminary removal of carotenoids and moderate amounts of vitamin A or sterols. Over 98% recoveries are obtained with pure tocopherols. The presence of the recently described 5-methyltocol in wheat products has been confirmed, and, in addition, using two-dimensional methods, a substance has been isolated from some cereal grains, which appears to be a new tocopherol.

VITAMIN A is an essential nutrient for the chick and must be supplied in adequate amounts before normal growth occurs. However, differences have been reported among laboratories concerning the age at which chicks are able to utilize the vitamin. Bolin, Lampman and Berg (1943) found that β-carotene was converted to vitamin A by the one-week-old chick. Amounts not less than 100 mcg. of β-carotene per 100 gm. diet were required to maintain liver vitamin A levels. Liver storage of vitamin A occurred at intakes greater than 500 mcg. per 100 gm. diet. Johnson, Carrick and Hauge (1947) fed chicks a vitamin A-deficient diet and studied the effect of β-carotene supplements given as alfalfa leaf meal. The carotene requirement during 8 to 16 weeks of age was no greater than that from 0 to 8 weeks. In contrast to the foregoing, Mann (1946) concluded that chicks were unable to assimilate vitamin …

POULTRY consumers in some areas prefer poultry having an abundance of yellow pigment in the skin and shanks. Palmer (1915) reported that xanthophyll supplied by the diet is the principal pigment in egg yolk, body fat, blood plasma and skin, especially of the shanks and claws. Several methods have been developed for the evaluation of the degree of pigmentation in the shanks of birds by comparing the color of the shanks with known standards. Brown (1930) used the Bradley color top to measure shank color. Differences in pigmentation were visible after one week in chicks hatched from eggs where the hen’s diet contained pimiento. Maw (1939) determined the color of the body fat, skin, and shanks by comparing them with carotene. Ringrose, Norris and Heuser (1939) compared the intensity of the shank color with a series of glass tubes colored with various shades of yellow which had been used in . . .

In a comparison of the skin-pigmenting efficiency of isolated carotenoids during a five week feeding period with male chicks, the carotenediols, lutein and zeaxanthin, were superior to all other materials tested. While lutein was deposited to the same extent as zeaxanthin, the depth of color produced was slightly less intense. Neolutein was nearly as effective as trans-lutein. Yellow corn selections in which either lutein or zeaxanthin was preponderant produced deposits similar to those of the purified pigments. Dietary fat (2% or 10% lard) improved pigmenting efficiency. In a comparison of mono-carotenols, cryptoxanthin was deposited about twice as efficiently as was zeinoxanthin. β-Carotene was ineffective. Synthetic β-apo-8′-carotenal was nearly half as effective as the carotenediols and produced a normal color; canthaxanthin was more efficient but produced an unnatural color. The carotenols deposited in the skin were found to be largely in the ester form. The carotenol fed was in each case the predominant pigment found in the skin.

Maintenance of rats on a protein-free, but not a 4% casein, diet produced a significant lowering of serum vitamin A. This effect was seen in rats deprived of vitamin A or provided with 90 μg of the vitamin twice weekly. In a separate study, rats maintained on 4% and 20% casein diets were depleted of vitamin A. They were then given 6 or 12 μg of vitamin A or 24 μg of carotene per day. The blood vitamin A response to administered vitamin A was not affected. Rats fed the low-protein diet exhibited only about one half of the serum vitamin A response to administered carotene as did those fed the 20% casein diet. Carotene failed to maintain liver vitamin A content in rats fed the low-protein diet. The results suggested that the absorption/conversion of β-carotene is impaired in rats maintained on a 4% protein diet. When rats were fed a protein-free diet the mobilization of vitamin A from the liver, or transport of the vitamin was also impaired.

LIMITED experimental evidence and field observations with chickens indicate that a possible relationship may exist between the requirement for vitamin A or carotene in the diet, and coccidiosis. Jungherr (1945) noted a relatively high association between the occurrence of A hypovitaminosis and cecal coccidiosis. However, he indicated that the association may have been coincidental. Taylor et al. (1946) also found that when the conditions were favorable for the development of cecal coccidiosis that the severity of the disease was enhanced in chickens receiving less than the minimum requirement of vitamin A. Davies (1952)) noted that chickens suffering from natural infections of coccidiosis had lower storages of vitamin A per gram of liver than normal chickens fed the same diet. It has also been shown by Murphy el al. (1938) that the provision of adequate amounts of cod liver oil accelerated recovery from coccidiosis. While this beneficial effect may have been due to the vitamin A content of this ingredient, the effects of vitamin D or other substances in the oil were not excluded. Schoop et al. (1954) reported …

Acidulated soybean soapstock increased the vitamin A storage in the livers of young chicks receiving a practical-type diet and improvet the survival of chicks reared on vitamin A-deficient diets. The biological activity was mainly associated with one of the carotenoids present in the acidulated soapstock. This pigment is characterized by its red color on the MgO column, its position below lutein but slightly above cryptoxanthin on the same column, and itssingle absorption max at 460 mμ in the visible region. Evidence is presented to show that the pigment is an artefact formed from lutein during the acidulation of raw soapstock and that it is identical with 3′-hydroxy-3,4-dehydro-β-carotene, a dehydration product of lutein.

The incorporation of radioactivity from [2- 14 C]glyoxylate, [2- 14 C]acetate and [2- 14 C]mevalonic acid into terpenoids during ripening of detached tomato fruit has been studied. Incorporation of [2- 14 C]-glyoxylate into β-carotene and lycopene, on a specific radioactivity basis, decreased as the fruit ripened. In contrast, incorporation from both [2- 14 C]acetate and [2- 14 C]mevalonic acid into β-carotene increased throughout the ripening process and into lycopene increased during early stages of ripening. Incorporation of all three metabolites into sterols decreased rapidly during the early ripening of the fruit but appeared to be relatively constant during later stages of ripening. The results are discussed in relation to possible changes in metabolism and accessibility of sites of pigment synthesis as the chloroplasts change during senescence to chromoplasts.

Es wurde von 117 verschiedenen einheimischen und fremdlandischen Fruchten der Gehalt an Vitamin C undβ-Carotin bestimmt und zwar das Vitamin C einerseits nach der Methode vonMathiesen undAschehoug, andererseits nach der Methode vonEmmerie undvan Eekelen und dasβ-Carotin nach der Methode von Kuhn undBrockmann. Die Untersuchungsergebnisse wurden, nach Pflanzenfamilien geordnet, tabellarisch zusammengefast. Der hochste Gehalt an Vitamin C wurde, abgesehen von dem bekannten Sanddorn,Hippophae Rhamnoides, bei einer Anzahl heimischer und auslandischer Rosen gefunden, vor allem bei Rosa pendulina.

The non-saponifiable fraction from a sample of β-carotene-hardened palm kernel oil which had developed a green discoloration has been examined. A number of β-carotene oxidation products were found and these included a number of β-carotene epoxide derivatives. A compound thought to be β-apo-3-carotenal was also found, but the apo-2- and apo-4-carotenals were not present in more than trace amounts. A major component was similar to, but not identical with, mutatochrome (β-carotene 5,8-epoxide). It is suggested that the green discoloration of the carotenised fat was due to oxidation of β-carotene to epoxide derivatives by traces of peroxyacids and the conversion of these epoxides into green-blue ionised forms by the action of an acidic material present in the fat.