Occurrence of Antigoitrogenic Substances in Plant Juices.

Abstract

The discovery by Chesney, Clawson and Webster 1 , 2 , 3 that cabbage when fed to rabbits as their principal food produces marked thyroid hyperplasia has provided a rapid and more practical method for testing various antigoitrogenic agents. Last year we showed that cabbage grown in the spring and early summer is much less goitrogenic than cabbage maturing in the late autumn. 4 Also it was pointed out that whole press juice and juice concentrates made from potent goiter-producing cabbage had little or no goitrogenic activity.

Further work showed that the goitrogenic activity of cabbage was in general inversely proportional to its ability to absorb iodine. This suggested that there were 2 substances in cabbage in variable amounts, one of which was goitrogenic and the other antigoitrogenic. This view is further supported by the fact that washing hashed, steamed cabbage with water increases its goitrogenic activity. Since the antigoitrogenic activity corresponds roughly to the amount of reducing substance (determined iodometrically), we have sought an available plant which contained the reducing substance in greater amounts than is ordinarily found in common vegetables. We have obtained very potent concentrates from the juice of skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) and have found that it produces thyroid involution in rabbits in from 8 to 10 days when fed by mouth daily in amounts equivalent to 100 units (a unit being the amount of juice required to absorb one cc. of N/100 iodine) in addition to our standard stock diet of oats and alfalfa hay. Sterile fractions introduced intraperitoneally appear to be more effective. Fresh cut alfalfa and lawn grass also produce involution of thyroid hyperplasia when fed to rabbits in amounts of 300 to 400 gm. daily for 3 weeks.