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Liberation and Measurement of Pantothenic Acid in Animal Tissues¹

Division of Biochemistry and Nutrition, American Meat Institute Foundation, and Department of Biochemistry, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois

An enzyme system was devised for the release of pantothenic acid from animal tissues. Lactobacillus arabinosus was used as the test organism. In the initial tests, intestinal phosphatase and pigeon liver preparations were used as the enzyme sources. Subsequent studies revealed that other enzyme preparations available in larger quantities (hog and lamb kidney) could replace the pigeon liver preparation. Dowex treatment of these preparations effectively removed the pantothenic acid and this circumvented the high blanks observed for the crude preparations. Dowex-treated hog kidney was used as the enzyme source in subsequent experiments.

Studies with different levels of enzyme and of different samples (coenzyme A concentrate, yeast and organ meats), recovery experiments, and the use of two different test organisms demonstrated the reliability of the enzyme system used. The pantothenic acid content of coenzyme A, organ and muscle meats obtained with this method was higher than that obtained by earlier methods (Mylase P digestion).

The pantothenic acid content of composite samples of beef, pork and lamb organs was determined. Liver, kidney and pancreas were shown to be the richest sources of pantothenic acid, heart and brain were intermediate, and lung and spleen were lowest in pantothenic acid content. The latter organs contain approximately twice the amount of pantothenic acid found in pork, beef or lamb muscle cuts.

A limited number of cooking tests were conducted with pork, beef and lamb muscle cuts and 50 to 85% of the pantothenic acid in the uncooked cuts was retained after cooking.

We are indebted to Armour and Company for supplying the coenzyme A concentrate, pigeon liver, pork, rat and lamb kidney acetone-powder preparations used in this study.

Manuscript received 15 June 1953.