The Effects of Heat and Aeration upon the Fat-soluble Vitamine

Abstract

A KNOWLEDGE of the conditions which affect the stability of vitamines is not only of immediate practical importance in connexion with the commercial and domestic treatment of foods, but is, clearly, not without value in setting certain limitations to hypotheses which may be framed as to the nature of these substances, and also in giving guidance when attempts are made to isolate them. There is at the moment less certain knowledge of this kind in the case of the "fat-soluble A" than in those of the two other recognised vitamines. Thus Steenbock, Boutwell and Kent [1918] came to the conclusion that the substance is readily destroyed by heat, and, later, Drummond [1919] from the results of his earlier experiments came to the same conclusion. Osborne and Mendel [1920], on the other hand, have recently confirmed earlier results of their own which indicated that it is resistant to heat. The investigation to be described in the present paper-to the results of which public reference has already been made [Hopkins, 1920]-confirms Osborne and Mendel's work by showing that the vitamine is relatively resistant to heat. It has demonstrated, on the other hand, that this nutritive factor is rapidly destroyed by exposure to atmospheric oxygen at temperatures ranging from 150 to 1200.