Vitamin A and carotene

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
10% of cod-liver oil in the diet doubled the A content of the eggs. The vitamin A content of the egg resumed its former level soon after the withdrawal of the cod-liver oil from the diet. The intensive administration of a concentrate raised the concn. of vitamin A in the egg to about five times that on the basal diet alone. The limits of absorption by the intestine were reached, since much of the ingested vitamin was recovered from the excreta. These considerable increases in the vitamin A content of the eggs represented a very small proportion (2 and 0.2% respectively) of the vitamin A ingested, analogous to the similar limitation usually found in the amounts of vitamin A made available to the young mammal during pregnancy and lactation. High concentrations of vitamin A were found in the liver of the hens, less, but still considerable, in the kidneys. Negative results were obtained in the other organs. The role of the liver in the vitamin A economy of the bird is essentially the same as in the mammal.

This publication has 5 references indexed in Scilit: