1. The vitamin C activities of ascorbic acid 2-sulfate (AsS) in rainbow trout (body weight 150〜200g) have been investigated. The trout fed on the vitamin C deficient diet for 10 days were divided into three groups, and diets were supplemented with the following : 1) Vitamin C deficient group, 2) AsS diet group and 3) AsA diet group. After each diets were administered on 1% per body weight, change of vitamin C contents in serum, liver and meat were determined by hydrazine method for 48 hours. Additional AsS on basal diets were onset equivalent to equal moles of AsA (2 mmol/diet 100g). AsA level, AsS diet group, were increased on each organs. Total vitamin C level of 1), 2) and 3) groups after 48 hours were 55,110 and 220 μg/g in liver, respectively. 2. The crude sulfatase prepared from the liver extract of rainbow trout hydrolyzed AsS. The optimum temperature and pH of the extract using 0.1M sodium acetate-acetic acid buffer were 30℃, pH 4.0. When the enzyme activity in the liver of trout and guinea pig were compared, the trout activities were similar to that of the guinea pig. These investigation have shown that AsS is possessed of vitamin C activity in the rainbow trout.

View full abstract

Ascorbate 2-sulfate (AsS) has been found in brine shrimp cysts, rat tissues and human urine, but there has been no report on the presence of AsS in vegetable foods. In this paper the existence of AsS in vegetable foods was examined by thin-layer chromatography and Dowex 1-X2 column chromatography. We selected unpolished rice, sweet potato, welsh onion, cabbage, chinese cabbage, spinach, lettuce, radish, carrot, pumpkin, cucumber, tomato, apple, mandarin orange, banana, leaves of persimmon and sprout as testing vegetable foods. At first, the water extract of every sample was tested on thin-layer chromatography using solvent system 1,chloroform・methanol・water・acetic acid (65 : 50 : 15 : 1 by vol.) and/or solvent system 2,n-butanol・acetic acid・water (50 : 20 : 30 by vol.). Especially, the water extracts of cucumber and sprout were chromatographed on Dowex 1-X2 column. No AsS was detected in various classes of vegetable foods as the result of chromatographies. It might be suggested that AsS would be absent in common vegetable foods.

View full abstract

We undertook the study of the metabolism of vitamin B_1 in 21 beriberi patients and 674 normal subjects. In the beriberi patients the total vitamin B_1 in the whole blood (VB_1) and the transketolase activity in the hemolysate (TKA) were significantly lower, whereas the thiamine pyrophosphate (TPP) effect was significantly higher than in the normal subjects. Since the greater parts of the two groups however overlapped, they could not clearly defined through each of these three values. So, we analyzed these results statistically. Beriberi was diagnosed with an accuracy of 87.7% by the discriminant analysis with VB_1,TKA and TPP effect. Among the three values, biochemical data such as TPP effect proved most effective in distinguishing the two groups. It was concluded that the VB_1,TKA and TPP effect were useful biochemical indices for the diagnosis of beriberi.

View full abstract

We analyzed the metabolism of vitamin B_1 in 674 healthy adult subjects. (1) The values of total vitamin B_1 in the whole blood (VB_1) were 68.1±31.2ng/ml., somewhat lower than those given in previous reports. (2) The activities of transketolase in the hemolysate (TKA) were 461±91μg/ml.ery./h, while the thiamine pyrophosphate (TPP) effect were 11.6±11.5%. 11% of the healthy subjects showed the values above the 25% TPP effect. (3) An inverse correlation was revealed between TKA and TPP effect, but no correlations were confirmed between VB_1 and either of the two. (4) The oral administration of vitamin B_1 brought about a great increase of VB_1 and TPP effect. (5) Blood pyruvate and lactate levels were within normal values. It was concluded that there seemed to be a great number of healthy subjects suffering from a subclinical vitamin B_1 deficiency in Japan recently.

View full abstract