INACTIVATING ACTION OF SOME FATS ON VITAMIN A IN OTHER FATS

Abstract

According to Drummond's investigations (1919), hydrogenated whale oil does not contain fat-soluble A, although the raw whale oil is rich in this vitamin.This result was corroborated by experiments conducted in our laboratory.But in one of them an unexpected phenomenon was observed.Experimental animals, receiving a basal food mixture, not containing vitamin A, mixed with 10 per cent hydrogenated whale oil, did not grow as usual, and control animals, receiving the basal food mixture mixed with 10 per cent butter fat, grew normally.Other control animals, receiving the basal food mixture wit,h 10 per cent butter fat and 10 per cent hydrogenated whale oil, did not grow, but behaved like animals starved forvitamin A, although the food of these animals contained a sufficient amount of vitamin A-containing butter fat in addition to the hydrogenated whale oil.In experiments by McCollum, Simmonds, and Pitz (1916), on the toxic effect on rats of certain vegetable oils, the hydrogenated whale oil was considered to be toxic.This assumption did not agree with the results of Erlandsen and his coworkers (1917), who found no toxic effects when feeding adult human beings, through protracted periods, food mixtures containing hydrogenated whale oil.Possibly young animals behave differently than adult human beings.This was the starting point of the experiments on rats, which resulted in another explanation of the phenomenon observed.EXPERIMENTAL.Basal Food Mizture.-200gm. of caseinogen, 30 gm. of agar, 50 gm. of autolyzed and dried yeast, 470gm. of rice-starch, and50gm. of salt mixture.