In order to confirm whether dibutylphthalate (DBP), widely utilized plasticizer, induces cytochrome P-450 system, sleeping time of rats fed on the diet with and without DBP by injection of pentobarbital was measured. Sleeping time of rats fed on DBP diet was 101.0±11.6 min, on the other hand, that of rats fed on DBP diet was 60.7±16.8 min. This suggests that DBP may induce cytochrome P-450 system under this condition. It was also investigated whether or/not an increase in growth rate and an acceleration of the Trp-NAD pathway were caused by Trp-sufficient diet with DBP as in the rats fed on a Trp-limited diet. The DBP addition to the Trp-sufficient diet did not cause increase in growth rate comparing to the rats fed on none-DBP diet (Trp-sufficient diet). However, the levels of quino-linic acid, nicotinic acid, N¹-methylnicotinamide and ascorbic acid in urine were higher in the DBP diet group than those in the none-DBP diet group. Accordingly, the conversion of anthranilic acid to 3-hydroxyanthranilic acid was considered to be increased by the administration of DBP, presumaly by induction of cytochrome P-450 system. This phenomenone was independent of Trp level in the diet.

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A method for determining provitamin A in Euglena gracilis Z was proposed by using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and the culture conditions of E. gracilis for high yield of provitamin A were studied.
1) Direct saponification of Euglena cells with 3.2 M KOH in methanol at 60°C for 20 min gave a satisfactory recovery of provitamin A.
2) Saponified extract of Euglena cells was loaded onto a column packed with silicagel and eluted with different solvents. From the absorption maximum and retention time in HPLC the Euglena provitamin A was found to be consisted of β-carotene, echnenone and euglenanone.
3) The content of β-carotene in the wild strain of E. gracilis grown with illumination was 577.8 μg/10⁹ cells. The wild strain grown in the dark and the bleached strain (a mutant derived from the wild strain) grown with or without illumination did not give higher contents.
4) Among several carbon sources examined, glucose or malic acid gave high yield of β-carotene in culturing E. gracilis. The highest content of β-carotene was obtained by culturing Euglena in the Koren-Hutner medium containing glucose and malic acid as the major carbon sources.

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The cultivation of Euglena gracilis on molasses (40g/liter) and ammonium phosphate, monobasic (5.5g/liter) with initial pH 3.5-5.5 gave a satisfactory cell yield and maximum content of cellular protein. The amino acid score of the cell proteins was 89-91 indicating that the Euglena grown on molasses has excellent nutritive value.
The in vitro digestibility of Euglena gracilis grown on molasses was studied by incubating Euglena with trypsin or pepsin. Euglena protein showed good digestibility with each protease: 84.6% by trypsin and 82.8% by pepsin. Rat feeding test was performed with Euglena gracilis grown on molasses to determine the nutritive values of the protein. The nutritive values of Euglena protein were as follows: protein efficiency ratio, 3.28; net protein ratio, 4.50; true digestibility, 93.2%; biological value, 80.2 and net protein utilization, 74.7. These values show that the Euglena protein is highly nutritive and similar to that of the Euglena grown on glucose-glutamate. Consequently, molasses are efficient as a carbon source for production of Euglena protein.

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Japanese green tea leaves were successively extracted by refluxing with the following solvents; n-hexane, benzene, benzene, ether, chloroform, acetone, ethanol, 60% ethanol in water and hot water. We examined the effect of an intravenous administration of these green tea extracts on the arterial blood pressure of rabbits. The hypotensive activity was found both in alcoholic extract and in hot water extract. When the hot water extract was administered in a dose of 20 mg/kg body weight, the arterial blood pressure was depressed by 35 to 45 mmHg. Gel filtration chromatography of the extract on the column of Sephadex G-50 demonstrated that the active substance existed in a fraction of high molecular weight.

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As a result of a component fractionation of green tea extracts, it was found that ribonucleic acid was a potent principle of the hypotensive activity. However, the nucleic acid fraction retained the activity after alkaline hydrolysis, and further purification of the hydrolysate clarified that the adenylic acid was the most potent one of the active elements.

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The distribution of ash and twelve kinds of elements in cow's milk were examined. For this purpose, individual raw milks were collected from eight healthy cows and fractionated by the following different methods. The individual whole milk (a) was separated into skim milk (b) and cream (c) by centrifugation, and skim milk fraction was further separated into casein (d) and whey (e) by three different ways, i. e. , ultracentrifugation, acidification, and addition of rennin. These three types of casein were designated as ultracentrifugal, acid- and rennin-casein. The cream fraction (c) was well washed with water and the residue was designated as the washed cream (f). For each fraction, the amounts of ash and the twelve elements, i. e. , Na, K, Ca, Mg, Zn, Fe, Cu, Mo, Mn, Co, Al and P were determined, of which the eleven metallic elements were determined with Hitachi Polarized Zeeman Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer, and P by a Molybdenum-Blue method. The ratios of b/a, c/a, d/b, e/b and f/c for the contents of ash and the twelve elements were calculated and illustrated. The figures of b/a and c/a indicated that Mo, Fe, Co, Cu, Mn and Al were contained at higher concentra-tion in the cream fraction than in the skim milk fraction. Four of above elements, i. e. , Mo, Fe, Co and Cu remarkably remained in the washed cream fraction. They are considered to bind tightly to some surface substances of fat globule. The figure of e/b indicated a fall in the contents of several elements (Ca, Fe, Cu, Zn, Mo and P) in the whey fraction, which suggests a presence of bound type of these elements in casein micelle. In fact, the ultracentrifugal casein fraction contained the six elements at remarkably higher concentration. The pattern of mineral composition of the rennin-casein fraction resembled to that of the ultracentrifugal casein fraction, but not to that of the acid-casein. fraction. Almost all the amount of Zn in the whole milk migrated to the ultracentrifugal casein frac-tion, but the amount of Zn found in the acid-casein fraction was a half of that of the whole milk. The contents of Ca, Mg, Al and P decreased in the acid-casein fraction. These findings suggest that dissociable type of binding contributes to the occurrence of these elements around the casein micelle.

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The fatty acids composition of lipids in human adipose tissue and Japanese diet were analysed. It appeared that the fatty acid pattern of human adipose tissue resembled to that of fat in the weals. The total fatty acid composition of the adipose tissue of the patients with cholelithiasis, pregnancy, gastric disease and the normal showed a similar pattern.
The percentage of stearic acid in phospholipid fraction of the adipose tissue, in the patients with cholelithiasis, lower than that of the other cases and normal subjects.
No significant differences in the fatty acids composition were found between abdominal sub-cutaneous and perirenal adipose tissue.

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Effect of several hydrolytic reagents was ex-amined on the proteinaceous amino acid recovery from the residues after the ethanolic extraction of a mushroom, Pleurotus ostreatus.
Over 85% of amino acid recovery was achiev-ed by 6 N HCl, 3 N p-toluenesulfonic acid, and 4 N methanesulfonic acid reagents, though the recovery was lower in 3 N mercaptoethanesulfonic acid. The highest recovery was obtained when 1, 500-volume to the sample weight of 6 N HCl was used. The other two reagents, p-tolueneand methane-sulfonic acids, were also applicable to the hydrolysis of mushroom proteins. The proteinaceous amino acid compositions were almost the same in every hydrolyses.

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[in Japanese]

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