2005 Volume 79 Issue 2 Pages 97-112
Hiroshl Sone, the first author of this article, entered the Riken Vitamin Company and started his research on natural vitamin A in the Shiogama factory in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, in 1947. His first research project was a search for new sources of natural vitamin A. He analyzed more than 2000 specimens, namely, the liver and other organs from various kinds of fish that had not been utilized for vitamin A sources then, and finally found that the pyloric caecum (appendix pylorus) and the Intestinal wall of arrow-toothed halibut (Atheresthes evermanni Jordan et Starks) contained very high concentrations of vitamin A. However, the basic and logical cause of such a high density of vitamin A in the extrahepatic organs In this fish remained enigmatic for Sone for over 50 years. Recently, the answer was given by Dr.H.Senoo who investigated uptake and storage of vitamin A in animals and found that vitamin A spilled out from the liver into extrahepatic organs in arctic animals. After Sone discovered this new source of vitamin A, he and his colleagues firstly challenged the development of a new method to obtain highly -concentrated vitamin A from liver oil.
