Journal of Nutrition

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Journal of Nutrition Vol. 6 No. 5 September 1933, pp. 443-454
Copyright © 1933 by American Society for Nutrition
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The Vitamin Content of Lichens*

N. R. Ellis, L. J. Palmer and G. L. Barnum

(From the Animal Husbandry Division, Bureau of Animal Industry, and the Bureau of Biological Survey, United States Department of Agriculture, Washington)

Feeding tests with rats failed to show the presence of the factors constituting the vitamin B-complex in either short or tall type lichens at the levels at which it was possible to feed them.

Tests for the vitamin A response showed that 5 per cent of short lichens added to the basal diet during a curative period permitted a moderate rate of gain. No vitamin A could be demonstrated in the tall lichens, either when fed whole or as an alcohol-ether extract at levels up to or equivalent to 10 per cent of the diet.

The tall lichens apparently possessed greater antirachitic properties than the short lichens. Curative tests showed a marked difference at a 5 per cent level.

The tall lichens were not palatable to rats and few survived for any extended time when fed at levels greater than 10 per cent. The short lichens were well tolerated at the levels fed.

* This study has formed a part of a coöperative investigation on nutrition problems relating to reindeer and musk-oxen by the Bureaus of Biological Survey and Animal Industry of the United States Department of Agriculture. The present study on the vitamin content of lichens was suggested by the Bureau of Biological Survey and the samples were obtained by L. J. Palmer in charge of the reindeer experiment station and grazing investigations of the Bureau of Biological Survey in Alaska. The work was conducted by the other authors named in the nutrition laboratories of the Bureau of Animal Industry at Beltsville, Maryland.

The authors wish to express their appreciation to Dr. W. B. Bell, of the Bureau of Biological Survey and to Dr. Paul E. Howe of the Bureau of Animal Industry for the suggestions they made relative to the conduct of the work.

Manuscript received 17 October 1932.




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