Vitamin A Activity of Butters Determined by Various Methods

A note on the vitamin D content of cow's colostrum

“…We have also carried out on the colostral fats and on the butter Lovibond tintometer estimations [Booth et al 1933] of their vitamin A and carotene contents. The results are given in Table II It will be seen that, in agreement with other workers [Dann, 1933;Semb et al 1934;Gillam et al 1936;Leuschen et at. 1937], we get much higher values for the early colostral as compared with later fats, the ratio between the first and third colostra being 12: 1 for carotene and 11: 1 for vitamin A.…”

Section D. The Nutritional value of milk and milk products

“…On the other hand, Leuschen et aZ. (45) obtained quite good agreement between the vitamin A activity of butter measured biologically and that calculated from physical measurements of vitamin A and carotene. Hauge et al (46,47) have investigated further the factor in soya beans which has a depressing action on the vitamin A content of the butter, and have concluded that the factor is heat-stable, insoluble in alcohol and present in the soya bean itself, soya-bean oil and soya-bean cake.…”

“…An exhaustive study of the content and stability of vitamin A in ghee has been carried out by Banerjee and his colleagues (67,68,69,70,7l,72). Vitamin A and carotene values for colostral fats are given in papers (45) and (63). The very high vitamin A values quoted by Scheunert(73) for milk are probably due to a mistake, as they do not tally with normal values he quotes simultaneously for butter.…”

“…It should be noted that values as low as 8 i.u. per g. have been reported from America for Jersey butter produced on unspecified feeding (45).…”