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The Folic Acid and Vitamin B₁₂ Content of the Milk of Various Species¹

Department of Biochemistry, College of Agriculture, University of Wisconsin, Madison

The free folic acid and vitamin B₁₂ content of milk from the cow, goat, sheep, rat, dog, sow, horse and human were determined microbiologically. The mean folic acid level of the milk from all 8 species was found to vary from 1 to 4 µg per liter. The colostrum of the cow and the goat was observed to be higher in both folic acid and vitamin B₁₂ than the regular milk of these species. The average vitamin B₁₂ content of the milk from the cows, sheep and goats studied was 6.6, 1.4 and 0.12 µg per liter, respectively. No breed differences were observed in the vitamin B₁₂ content of the milk from the Holstein, Guernsey, or Jersey cows. Commercial cow's milk was found to contain 1.6 to 6.5 µg of vitamin B₁₂ per liter.

The vitamin B₁₂ content of the milk of the non-ruminants was observed to be more variable than that of the ruminants. These variations were in part due to the dietary intake of this vitamin. The mean folic acid and vitamin B₁₂ content of the milk from 5 human subjects were found to be 0.71 and 0.41 µg per liter.

² On leave of absence from the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.

Manuscript received 13 September 1950.