Inositol in Chick Nutrition

Eastwood1 showed inositol to be one of the bios factors required by certain yeasts. Recently Woolley2, 3 has demonstrated that the mouse requires inositol for normal growth and the prevention of alopecia. Pavcek and Baum4 have also found inositol to be effective in preventing lack of growth and “spectacled eye” in rats maintained on certain purified diets. These results together with the isolation of phytic acid from chicken blood by Rapoport5 suggested that the chick might also require inositol.Growth responses varying from 18 to 52 g in 4 weeks have been obtained upon the addition of inositol† to several different simplified chick rations (Table I). It is clear that inositol has a definite growth-promoting action although the response varies with the amount of inositol in the ration and the adequacy of the supplement used to supply unidentified growth factors.Ration 477 is the same as ration 470 described previously6 with the following additions: 3% of extracted kidney residue, .15% choline, 15 mg of pa...