The Vitamin G Content of Some Foods

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The Bourquin-Sherman ('31) and Munsell ('31) vitamin G deficient diets were employed to measure the flavin content of various foods. Since pure flavin was unavailable at the time the assays were carried out it was not possible to make parallel feeding tests. The results are, therefore, based on the reliability of technic employed. Hence, the flavin potency of the foods tested is expressed in terms of Bourquin-Sherman units of flavin rather than in terms of weight of flavin. Cottonseed meal, soy beans (Biloxi variety), dried whole milk and dried brewer's yeast were found to be good sources of vitamin G (flavin) and to contain 2.9, 2.4 to 3.2, 5.3 and 20.0 to 21.0 Bourquin-Sherman units of flavin per gram, respectively. Milk from a pellagrous region (South Carolina) is apparently as potent in flavin as that from other localities. Extraction of cottonseed meal with 50% ethyl alcohol (by weight) at room temperature removes only about half of the flavin content. No destruction of flavin occurred during the extraction process as evidenced by the fact that the remainder of the flavin was found in the residue. The solids of the alcoholic extract contained about 10.0 Bourquin-Sherman flavin units per gram representing a vitamin concentration of 3.4 times and a potency about one-half that of dried brewer's yeast and almost twice that of whole milk powder. The flavin as found in soy beans and in cottonseed meal appeared to be quite stable to pressure cooking at 15 pounds for 30 minutes. When differences in the body weight curves of negative control rats are taken into consideration in calculation of the flavin potency of a food, the Munsell and the Bourquin-Sherman flavin-deficient diets yielded almost the same ‘unit’ values for the foods studied.

This publication has 28 references indexed in Scilit: