The distribution of vitamin-B in the wheat kernel

Abstract

Foods containing various percentages of wheat and wheat derivatives, and comparable to each other in their content of all known dietary essentials except such quantities of vitamin-B as might be present in the wheat product used were fed to mice; and the rate of growth on these foods was observed.

When the entire wheat kernel was thus used as the source of vitamin-B in the diet, admixtures of from fifteen per cent. (Marquis spring wheat), to forty per cent. (Minnesota winter wheat), were required to insure growth at a normal rate.

The approximate concentration of vitamin-B in each of the milling products from a single lot of winter wheat was estimated. The “patent flour” contained no appreciable vitamin; the “first clear” and “second clear” displayed about the same concentration as the unmilled grain; the “low grade flour” and “bran” were about twice as rich; the “standard middlings” (which included the portion containing most of the embryo) were four times as rich as the entire grain.

“Hand-dissected” portions of grains, representing more nearly the true structural divisions of both spring and winter wheat were also investigated. Vitamin-B was found in both embryo and endospern. The concentration in the embryo was several times as great as that in the endosperm; but owing to the small percentage of the entire kernel represented by the embryo, the absolute quantity of vitamin-B contained therein was not more than a sixth of the total amount in the grain. of the total amount in the grain. No difference could be detected between “hand-dissected “ and “commercial “ embryos. The presence or absence respectively of the embryo in the two ends of the grain, when fed separately, did not appreciably affect the concentration of vitamin-B in these two portions.