Comparative Bioautography of Folic and Folinic Acids of Erythrocytes and Livers of Normal Ducks and Ducks Infected with Malarial Parasites

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Abstract
Since the erythrocytes of ducks infected with Plasmodium lophurae contain much more folic and folinic acid than those of uninfected ducks, the Rf values of these growth factors in infected and uninfected red blood cells were compared. Paper chroma-tography followed by bioautography was used to determine the number of components supporting growth of L. casei and P. cerevisiae. Both normal and infected erythrocytes gave identical bioautographs having two components: (1) with Rf 0.5 active only for L. casei and (2) with Rf 0.7 active both for L. casei and P. cerevisiae. This finding fits the hypothesis that the increased levels of folic and folinic acids results from an altered metabolism of the host red cell rather than from synthesis by the parasites. Livers of infected ducks had less L. casei-active material than those of normal ones, but both showed identical bioautographs.