RT Journal
A1 CURTIS AC, BALLMER RS
T1 THe prevention of carotene absorption by liquid petrolatum
JF Journal of the American Medical Association
JO Journal of the American Medical Association
YR 1939
FD November 11
VO 113
IS 20
SP 1785
OP 1788
DO 10.1001/jama.1939.02800450007002
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.1939.02800450007002
AB It has been shown by several workers1 that, when rats were fed diets supplying the provitamin carotene, vitamin A deficiencies developed if liquid petrolatum was added to the diets in amounts comparable to the accepted dosage for human beings. Dutcher, Harris, Hartzler and Guerrant2 have reported experiments showing that the carotene of a mixture of carotene and liquid petrolatum was not utilized when fed to animals but that the vitamin A of a carotene-free cod liver oil concentrate mixed with liquid petrolatum was absorbed quite readily from the gastrointestinal tract. They believed that the lack of absorption of carotene was due to the greater solubility of the hydrocarbon carotene in the hydrocarbon liquid petrolatum and that vitamin A was absorbed because of the greater solubility of the sterol vitamin A in the sterols of the gastrointestinal tract. Further work by Mitchell3 and by Jackson4 confirms the