The urinary flavin excretion of rats as influenced by fatty acid intake

Abstract

It has been shown(1)(2)(3)(4)(5) that the fat intake increases the flavin requirement. The increase can be due to the following two causes (a) Fat inhibits the flavin synthesis of microflora in the intestines. (b) Oxidation of fat requires much more flavin than that of equicaloric carbohydrate. We excluded the cause (a) by the addition of 200mg, homosulfamine per day per rat to the basal diet. (Tables I and 2) Then the starch was replaced with equicaloric fatty acids such as oleic, palmitic, caproic, caprylic, capric, lauric, myristic, linoleic, and stearic acids. The result of analysis (Table 3) that every fatty acid decreases the flavin output shows that the oxidation of fatty acid uses more flavin than that of starch. Among the fatty acids oleic acid requires the smallest amount of flavin and linoleic acid the largest. © 1953, Japan Society for Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Agrochemistry. All rights reserved.