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The Digestibility of Carotene by Rats and Chickens

One Figure

Division of Chemistry, Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, College Station

1. Yellow pigments were found in the excrement of rats and chickens which had received feed containing negligible amounts of carotene. These coloring materials could not be separated from the carotene by the usual chemical procedures. The absorption curves of these pigments were quite different from that of carotene, even though they absorbed some light in the same region of the spectrum as carotene. Corrections were made for these pigments in estimating the digestibility of carotene.

2. The percentage of carotene apparently digested depended on the quantity of carotene fed, on the nature of the material in which it was contained and on the kind of animal to which it was fed. When carotene in dehydrated alfalfa leaf meal was fed at the rate of 20 parts per million, the rats digested 18 to 23% and the chickens 29%. When 1 part per million was fed the rats digested 43% and the chickens 69%. When carotene in Wesson oil was fed at the rate of 10.5 parts per million of the feed, the rats digested 51% as compared with 22% when an equal amount of carotene was fed in dehydrated alfalfa leaf meal.