486 IX. CAROTENOIDS AND VITAMINS A 



from the intestine of blue and fin whales caught near the Faroe Islands in 

 the arctic area, contained 14.5 mg./kg. of (8-carotene. It was believed that 

 this might be the source of the liver vitamin A in these whales. However, 

 Fisher et al.'^*^ question this finding, since E. superha Dana is not usual in 

 the arctic areas, but only in the Antarctica. Thompson et al.'^^^ demon- 

 strated that the "krill" from whales from the antarctic regions did consist 

 of E. superba Dana. Although these euphausiids were found to contain 

 large amounts of astaxanthin, only small quantities of j8-carotene were 

 present. Fisher et al^^^ are of the opinion that the organisms which Wag- 

 j^gj.460 reported to be Ewphausia superba Dana were actually Meganycti- 

 phanes norvegica (ilf. Sars). As indicated earlier, Kon and Thompson^** 

 demonstrated the presence of preformed vitamin A in Meganyctiphanes 

 norvegica as well as in Thysanoessa raschii (which is closely related to T. 

 inermis, a form more commonly present). Fisher and co-workers'*^^ cal- 

 culated that the baleen whales {M ystacoceti) , which have a stomach capac- 

 ity of roughly 1200 liters, would therefore have a capacity of approxi- 

 mately 2000 lb. of the organisms in the food. Since the latter would have 

 an average vitamin A content of 20 I.U./g., the whale could obtain 20,000,- 

 000 I.U. of vitamin A from one feeding. This figure was originally cal- 

 culated incorrectly as 2,000,000 I.U. It would thus appear that the pre- 

 formed vitamin A in these euphausiids is sufficient to account for the vita- 

 min A stored in the livers and tissues of these whales. 



b'. Mollusca: Lonnberg^"-''^^ reported the presence of carotenoids in al- 

 most eighty species of mollusks. In most cases the pigments were present 

 in the ripe eggs and digestive glands, but in some instances they were also 

 found in the skin and eyes. 



a". Lamrllibranchiata. Several unique carotenoid pigments have been 

 demonstrated in this group. One of these is glycymerin, which was first 

 prepared from the sex glands of the round arc clam {Glycymeris gh/cymeris) 

 by Lederer-^'^''* and by Fabre and Ledereri^^*^ it is a neutral xanthophyllic 

 pigment. Lederer^^'''^^ prepared another carotenoid pigment, pecteno- 

 xanthin, from the red gonads and mantile of the St. Jacques scallop {Pecten 

 maximus) .'^^' In addition to this new xanthophyll, other esterified xantho- 

 phylls and /3-carotene were present. A carotenoid somewhat similar to 

 pectenoxanthin was isolated by Euler et al.^^^ from the horse mussel {Vol- 

 sella modiolus). A third pigment, which is widely distributed, nameh' 

 astaxanthin (astacene), is likewise found in some molluscs, including the 



«i E. Lederer, Compt. rend. soc. bioL, US, 1015-1016 (1933). 

 ■«2 E. Lederer, Comvt. rend. soc. biol., 116, 150-153 (1934). 



