Abstract
The distribution of B-vitamins in the rice grain has been investigated by the microbiological assay procedure in which a uniform medium available for the assays of B-vitamins with lactic acid bacteria, as shown in Table 1, was applied. The rice grains used were three varieties, Asahi No. 4 and Omachi in Japan, and Calrose in California, U.S.A. The rice grain (whole brown rice) was divided into three parts, i, e., embryo, rice bran and polished rice, and the B-vitamins content in each part was determined. The results indicated that the B-vitamins in the rice grain could be classified into three groups. The first group including thiamine, riboflavin and folic acid, the second group including pyridoxal and biotin, and the third group including nicotinic acid and pantothenic acid showed the order of embryo>rice bran>polished rice, embryo≅ rice bran>polished rice, and rice bran>embryo>polished rice, respectively, in the concentration of the vitamins in each part of the grain as shown in Fig. 1 (Part 1-3). Concerning with the distribution of B-vitamins in the rice grain, the rice bran was generally the richest part of the vitamins in the grain as shown in Table 4.
