Total body water and its biological half life were estimated by deuterium oxide (D₂O) dilution method in male and female students. The urinary D₂O concentration was determined by gaschromatographic method.
Within 3 hours after oral administration of D₂O, D₂O concentration of body water achieved an equilibrium and then decreased gradually. The decrement was applicable to an exponential equation, Y=A₀e^-λt. Total body water and its biological half life were calculated from the amount of D₂O administered and the D₂0 concentration at zero time (A₀)
Total body water of fourteen female athletes, eight female students and twelve male athletes were 57.8 ± 2.4%, 51.6 ± 2.9% and 67.1 ± 2.4% of body weight, respectively. The content of body water to body weight in female athletes was significantly higher than that in female students. However, the contents of body water to fat free mass in female athletes and in female students were not significantly different. The highest content of body water to body weight was observed in male athletes subjects. Biological half life of body water was faster in male and female athletes measured in summer than female students measured in autumn.

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Through the market basket studies proposed by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the same kinds of foods were purchased at Sapporo, Sendai, Tokyo, Kofu, Nagano, Osaka, Wakayama, Matsue and Kitakyushu in November 1983. The purchased foods were divided into 8 groups and contents of 18 kinds of food additives were analyzed. Intakes of each food additives percapita per day were 45.9 mg of fumaric acid, 103mg of succinic acid, 176mg of malic acid, 31.2mg of tartaric acid, 693 mg of citric acid, 254mg of acetic acid, 1, 118mg of glutamic acid, 296mg of aspartic acid, 201mg of glycine, 3.35mg of sodium 5'-inosinate, 0.34mg of sodium 5'-uridylate, 0.86mg of sodium 5'-guanylate, 0.15mg of sodium 5'-cytidylate, 433mg of Ortho-phosphate (as P), 986mg of sorbitol, 2.9mg of α-tocopherol, 0.53mg of β-carotene and 366mg of calcium. The ratios of daily intakes of each food additive to ADI were 0-18.6%. No significant differences were observed in the contents of 18kinds of food additives of foods purchased from big, middle-class or small supermarkets, or local retail shops.

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The study was carried out to observe the effects of high fat feeding on the metabolic pathway of gluconeogenesis as opposed to high protein feeding. The rats were fed on a high protein-carbohydratefree (HP) diet, a high fat-carbohydrate free diet consisting of either corn oil (HF-corn oil) or medium chain triglyceride (HF-MCT), and a control diet (high carbohydrate) for 10 days.
A high activity of hepatic glucose-6-phosphatase (G6Pase) was shown in the 3 groups except for the control group. Despite elevated gluconeogenesis in those groups, the activity of hepatic enzyme of glutamic alanine transaminase (GAT), pyruvate carboxylase (PC) and arginase was different between rats fed the HF-corn oil, HF-MCT and HP diets. The activities of GAT and arginase increased in the HP group, but PC activity did not increase in comparison with the control group. The HF-corn oil fed rats showed an enhancement of PC activity, but not GAT and arginase activity. The HF-MCT feeding, however, did not induce such a high activity of PC. It rather resulted in higher GAT and arginase activities than that observed with the HF-corn oil feeding, although the activities were less than that in rats fed the HP diet.
When animals were starved for 24 hours, the levels of G6Pase activity in rats of the 3 groups were decreased to almost the same level as in control rats. The findings concerning the relative activity of GAT and PC among the fed groups were even observed in the starved rat groups. Arginase activity was low in HF-corn oil and HF-MCT rats in starved state.
These results suggest that a different mechanism from the one occurring in high protein feeding is responsible for stimulating glucose synthesis by high fat (long chain) feeding, and that acetyl CoA, which is formed in large amounts as a result of accelerated fatty acid oxidation, may promote gluconeogenesis without ureogenesis acceleration.

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Euglena gracilis Z, a wild strain and a bleached mutant SM-ZK contained considerable amounts of polyunsaturated fatty acids.
E. gracilis grown under photoautotrophic conditions were rich in linolenic acid and contained rela-tively small amounts of C₂₀ polyenoic acids. On the other hand, E. gracilic grown under heterotrophic conditions contained a large amount of polyenoic acids, including arachidonic acid. These polyenoic acids were contained in the polar lipid fraction ; oleic acid was rich in the pellicle complex, linolenic acid in chloroplasts and arachidonic acid and eicosapentanoic acid in the mitochondria and microsomal fractions. The lipid types synthesized by Euglena in the light and in the dark, and their oxygen dependency were studied.
The major polyunsaturated fatty acid in photoauxotrophic cells was linolenic acid. Illumination induced only linolenic acid formation, and arachidonic and eicosapentanoic acids were synthesized in-dependent of light effect. Anaerobic conditions induced the formation of saturated fatty acids and themajor saturated fatty acids was myristic acid.

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A simple method is described for the determination of a major organic acid oxalate in vegetables. The method involves homogenization of specimens in ice-cold water and 3N HCl for the extraction of water-soluble and total oxalate, respectively, and subsequent analysis of the extracts by capillary isotachophoresis using 0.01N HCl: β-alanine (pH 4.0) and 0.01N n-caproic acid (pH 3.4) as leading and terminal electrolytes, respectively. Other major organic acids also separated by this method were oxalacetic, α-ketoglutaric, citric and succinic acids. Oxalate was confirmed by the disappearance of corresponding zone and the concomitant apperance of formate zone in the isotachophoregram for the specimens treated with oxalate decarboxylase. The calibration curve was linear over the range of 0 to 20 nmol per μl of standard mixture. Oxalate and calcium contents of 13 vegetables have been compared. Water-soluble oxalate in spinach could be leached out in boiling water.

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Quantitative analysis of free adenine in soybean was made by the following procedures. The defatted soybean powder was extracted with H₂O at 4°C for 48 hr, after centrifugation at 3, 000rpm for 20 min. The supernatant fluid was deproteinized with PCA (final concentration, 5%). The deproteinized supernatant was neutralized with KOH and submitted to the ion-exchange chromatography (AG 50W-X8, 1X25cm). The adenine fraction was further applied to the high-performance liquid chromatography (Shim-pack CLC-ODS, 0.15mX6.0 ∅) equipped with UV-VIS spectrophotometric detector. Free adenine content was evaluated from proportion of peak area to that of standard material. Average value of free adenine content in raw soybean was 0.05%.

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