Biochemical Studies on Absorption of Carotene (VI)

Comparison of the Utilization of Vitamin A and Carotene

Abstract

To compare the availability of carotene with vitamin A, the following experiment was carried out by using the synthetic vitamin A and the crystal carotene.
The biological assay followed mostly the report. I. In view of the growth response, there was not any noticeable difference between both groups, but the carotene group was lower than vitamin A one; the ratio of increase of the body weight was 3:4, as shown in Fig 1 and Table. The amount of vitamin A storage in liver was slightly recognizable in both groups, but in the vitamin A group it was appreciably higher than in the carotene group, as shown in Table 1, moreover, the femals were superior in vitamin A storage to the males.
From the points of excretion of vitamin A and carotene in feces, the amount of the excreted vitamin in feces reached to the maximum on the 2nd and 3rd day after dosing, as shown in table 2. The excretion ratio of vitamin A is assumed 5% in the synthetic vitamin A and that of carotene is 10% in the crystal form.