VITAMIN A

Hokitika Guardian, 8 January 1925, Page 1

VITAMIN A

ISi 11. AT It i.N KI-TKCTKD. What they believe to he Vitamin A has been sueees.-, fully lat.-il l,y two Japanese chemists K. Takahasln and Iv. Kauai.ami --the t hemieal So eiet\ ol Japan announced in SepteluIl this actually has been done, ii is likely to prove an important event in the [impress ol loud chemistry. Vitamin A. the tat soluble vitamin, is perhaps the most important ol these mysterious substances nou definitely known to exist. Its absence in food pive rise m rickets in children h is closely connected with the growth of children and younp animals. Il is abundant in butter, egg yolk, coil liver oil, milk, cream, and most oily animal fats. Certain fresh vegetables, such as cabbage. spinach, tomatoes, and lettuce, have some of this vitamin. Dung exposure to heat gradually destroys it. hut ordinary cooking seems to have no effect. Hitherto nothing has been known concerning its proprieties. ’lhe Japanese chemists, however, have analySOj | Hie substance they obtained. Whether or not it is vitamin A remains a question tor further teiiiicuLion. They isolated it from cod liver oil. butiter and e.gg yolk. Auer an involved chemiael process a semi-cry.— tallinc substance was obtained, constituting about one-tenth of one per cent of the original material. This was"found to he composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, with no nitrogen. A mouse at the point of death because of lack of. vitamin A was’ given minute quantities of the substance daily, and in ten days was restored to complete health.