Abstract
Studies of factors that affect milk vitamin contents are important. We investigated the vitamin contents in rat milk and the effects of dietary vitamin intakes of dams on the vitamin contents in their milk. A low-vitamin diet (0.2%) and a high-vitamin diet (4.0%) based on a diet containing 1% AIN-93-VX (normal diet) was given to female rats from pregnancy to lactation. Regarding the effects of the vitamin intakes, the concentrations of vitamins B1, B2, B6, B12 and E were decreased with the low-vitamin diet, but were not increased with the high-vitamin diet. The concentrations of niacin, pantothenic acid and biotin were not decreased with the low-vitamin diet, but were increased with the high-vitamin mixture diet. The folate concentration remained constant regardless of the intake of folate. These findings clearly indicate that the levels of certain vitamins in milk are easily affected by the dietary vitamin intakes.
