A combined use of ursodesoxycholic acid with riboflavin results in promoting riboflavin phosphorylation in the children with nutritional dystrophy.

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The intestinal absorption and riboflavin phosphorylation was shown to be accelerated significantly by ursodesoxycholic acid in guinea pigs.

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The investigation on the change of vitamin B₁₂ in the treatment of activated sludge showed that bacterial cell fraction obtained by the centrifugation of the supernatant contained vitamin B₁₂ as much as 30γ/g.

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Investigation was made on the methane fermentation products of alcoholic distillers' wastes from the viewpoint of vitamin B₁₂ resources. Vitamin B₁₂ was determined with the samples of the pilot plant at the Fermentation Research Institute and of the digester at Yoshinoya Factory.
The results indicate that distillers' wastes contain a small amount of vitamin B₁₂, while a remarkable increase of the vitamin was recognized after methane fermentation and the vitamin was mainly contained in the cells of the fermentation bacteria. It was found that the bacterial cell fraction of high vitamin B₁₂ content could be obtained by centrifuging the supernatant liquor discharged from digester and was the best raw material for crystalline vitamin B₁₂.
The bacterial cell fraction obtained from the supernatant at Yoshinoya contained vitamin B₁₂ as unprecedentedly much as 70-90γ/g on a dry basis. The high vitamin content seems to be partly due to thermophilic fermentation.

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1 A simple method for the determination of PALP was devised using the apotryptophanase of Escherichia coli which contains neither pyridoxalkinase nor PALP-decomposing enzyme. The limits for measurement of PALP are roughly 0.03 and 0.3γ, and PAL, PIN, PAM and ATP did not show any disturbing effects on this method.
2. The PALP levels of human serum were measured, and followed after intravenous administration of PALP, PAL or PIN.
3. The PALP levels of the organs of normal and thyreoidectomized rabbits were measured.

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1. A rapid and simplified method for the estimation of MNA is presented.
2. The conditions of the reaction, especially the effect of the amount of water and of the mixture of KCl-HCl solution are studied.
3. The duration of the condensation reaction in an alkaline medium is also important, and the appropriate conditions are reported.
4. Throughout the experiments the temperature of the hot water bath was kept at 85-90°. Instead of a boiling water bath, rather lower temperature was adopted for the convenience of handling a number of samples at a time to prevent spattering effect of the solution while heating and to maintain rather uniform temperature for the chromatographic procedure.
5. A linear relationship between the concentration of MNA and fluorometer reading on a logarithmic plot has been established.
6. An inadequacy of the use of internal standards is discussed.
7. By adopting the new method here proposed, time for operation can be shortened markedly, thus enabling the estimations of 50 urine samples in a day.

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The crude thiaminase II of Bacillus aneurinolyticus Kimura et Aoyama failed to decompose cocarboxylase, whereas the crude thiaminase I of Bacillus thiaminolyticus Matsukawa et Misawa and of shell-fish catalyzed its decomposition. Although a pyrimidine derivative and thiazole pyrophosphate were detected on a paper chromatogram as decomposition products of cocarboxylase by the thiaminase I of the latter bacillus, a pyrimidine derivative and the nonesterified thiazole were the end products in the case of the crude thiaminase I of shell-fish. It was found in the latter case, however, that the enzyme could destroy cocarboxylase directly into a pyrimidine derivative and thiazole pyrophosphate when sodium fluoride or sodium molybdate was added as a phosphatase inhibitor to the reaction mixture of cocarboxylase and the crude enzyme.

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The protective effect of N-pyridoxylidene-L-cysteine against X-ray irradiation has been recognized from the survival percentage.

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There are three isomers of dihydrothiamine, i.e., normal, iso and pseudo forms. In the present paper normal- and iso-dihydrothiamine were proved to have perhydro-furothiazole structure by means of infrared absorption spectral measurements and syntheses of their related compounds. It is assumed that the ring fusion is trans in the normal compound and cis in the iso compound.

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From chemical examinations and infrared absorption spectral measurements for pseudo-dihydrothiamine and newly synthesized homologs, it is assumed that all of these compounds possess the skelton of pyrimido [4, 5-d] thiazolo [3, 4-a] pyrimidine.

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1. For determining vitamin A in feces, non-carotene yellow pigment giving positive Carr-Price reaction is removed by using weakly activated almina and developing with 1.25per cent acetone-petroleum benzine as a solvent system and the vitamin A fraction thus separated is analyzed for vitamin A.
2. For determining carotene in feces, α- and β-carotene fractions are separated by calcium hydroxide chromatography using petroleum ether as a developing solvent and the fraction thus obtained is analyzed for β-carotene photometrically.
3. An appropriate assay method for determining percentage absorption of carotene contained in foodstuffs in human experiment was described.
4. The percentage absorption of the β-carotene contained in several main carotene-rich foodstuffs and that in oil as well as that of vitamin A in oil were determined in several Japanese and the results were given.
5. The increase in carotene and vitamin A levels in serum was successively determined at timed intervals after ingesting varying amounts of vitamin A or carotene in man. It was found that the carotene and vitamin A levels became maximum 5 and 3 hours respectively after ingesting carotene, whereas vitamin A level in serum reached a maximum value 3-4 hours after ingesting vitamin A. After ingesting carotene, the vitamin A level in serum reached a maximum value earlier than the carotene level and the value of the former was higher than the latter. It is therefore presumed that a considerable part of the carotene is converted in the intestine in man, though some of the carotene appear in blood without change.
6. If the increased maximum values of serum vitamin A levels were plotted against the amounts of vitamin A ingested, the increased vitamin levels were roughly proportioned to the amounts of the vitamin ingested up to 130mg. On the contrary, if the varying amounts of β-carotene were ingested, the increased maximum serum carotene levels did not rise appreciably after ingesting more than 32mg of carotene, indicating the poor absorption of β-carotene when ingested in larger amounts. The rise in vitamin A levels in serum was also insignificant. In short, carotene is absorbed in man far less than vitamin A, when given in larger doses.
7. If the vitamin A in organs is determined 24 hours after administering carotene or vitamin A to rats, the majority of the vitamin was stored in liver, whereas the vitamin increased insignificantly in other organs.
8. If the vitamin A in liver is determined successively after administering vitamin A or β-carptene, the vitamin levels were highest about 12-15 hours after intake.
9. If the vitamin A levels in liver 15 hours after administering varying amounts of carotene or vitamin A of the same I.U. were determined, those after carotene intake was about 40per cent of those after receiving vitamin A of the same I.U.
10. The vitamin A levels in liver were compared 24 hours after administering carotene or vitamin A with or without varying amounts of α-tocopherol. Those after giving tocopherol were somewhat (4-16%) higher than those without supplementation, but the effect was not marked. Taking a gain in body weight of rats into consideration, a remarkable effect of tocopherol has been reported in the literature, but the rise in vitamin A levels in liver was not siginificantly effected in this experiment by giving varying amount of tocopherol.

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1. The authors have found in the previous experiments that the relative amount of free vitamin B₁₂ and its bound form in serum is changeable according to various conditions. This experiment was retested in the present experiment with the blood added with vitamin B₁₂ by dialyzing with animal membrane against barbiturate buffer, pH 8.6. The bound vitamin was found to be 3.30-3.80mγ per ml of bovine blood.
2. The distribution of bound B₁₂ in bovine serum was studied by both paper electrophoresis and bioautography and the vitamin-binding ability of γ-globulin was found to be higher than that of albumin or β-globulin.
3. It was found that 50per cent of the vitamin B₁₂ in bovine blood was found in red blood cells, about 75per cent of the vitamin being in a bound form. 10g of freshly prepared bovine erythrocytes were found to contain 8.5mγ of the vitamin in endosama and 0.69mγ in stroma. Repeated experiments of paper electrophoresis and microbioassay showed that the vitamin in bovine endosoma may probably exist in the form of B₁₂-globin-complex.

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