STORAGE OF CAROTENOIDS AND OF VITAMINS A 503 



Although Halliburton,^^^ in 1885, noted the presence of lipochromes (ca- 

 rotenoids) in the serum and l)ody fat of turtles, as well as in Crustacea and in 

 the pigeon, hen, and dove, the first modern work on turtles was carried out 

 in 1938, when Lederer-^-^*" reported a study of the Japanese green water- 

 turtle {Chnjsemys scripta elegans). This reptile was found to have 7-caro- 

 tene in the red spots under the eyes, a-carotene in the yellow dorsal cara- 

 pace, and a mixture of a-carotene and lutein in the gut. The occurrence 

 of a pigment similar to lutein in the skin of the slider terrapin {Chrysemys 

 spp.) has been reported. ^^^ Astacene was identified in the retinae of the 

 wood terrapin {Clemmys insculpta) .^^^ The liver of the Greek tortoise 

 {Testudo graeca) contains a considerable quantity of carotenoids.^^- 



((?) Carotenoids and Vitamins A in Birds (Aves). Birds belong to the 

 group of higher animals (Group D) which store the carotenols, while only 

 small amounts of carotenes occur in the tissues. This latter condition 

 may be related to the fact that birds are able to convert provitamins A into 

 vitamin A in the wall of the intestine. i'*- Although the carotenol, crypto- 

 xanthin, does not ordinarily occur in chicken blood, it may be present after 

 it has been administered.^^ However, there is no evidence that the hen is 

 able to change other carotenoid pigments to cryptoxanthin, as suggested by 

 Grimbleby and Black.^^^ Lycopene and zeaxanthin are also present in the 

 blood of chickens after these carotenoids have been fed. On the usual 

 farm diet, lutein normally occurs in the blood of chickens. Ganguly and 

 co-workers^^ reported the presence of lutein to the extent of 162 /ig./lOO ml. 

 plasma when the birds had received the ordinary "farm" diet. However, 

 when these chickens were fed a lutein-free diet for thirty or one-hundred 

 sixty days, the value for this carotenoid in the plasma dropped to zero, and 

 remained at this level in animals continuing on the same diet. Small 

 amounts of ^S-carotene (4.2 /ig./lOO ml.) were likewise observed in the sera of 

 chickens on the farm diet, but this value promptly fell to zero in a number 

 of groups which had been given carotene-free diets; periods as short as 

 seven days were able to effect this change. No /3-carotene could be dem- 

 onstrated in the blood when 14 mg. of pure /3-carotene were administered 

 over a seven-day period. The adventitious origin of the carotenoids in 

 the blood is illustrated by the fact that 7.2 jug. of lycopene, 213 ng. of 

 cryptoxanthin and 526 ng. of zeaxanthin were noted in the blood after these 



5" W. D. Halliburton, /. Physiol, 6, 300-335 (1885); 7, 324-326 (1886). 

 5« E. Lederer, Bull. soc. chim. biol, 20, 554-566 (1938). 

 561 G. Wald and H. Zussman, /. Biol. Chem., 122, 449-460 (1938). 

 5^2 R. M. Love (1951), unpublished work; cited by T. W. Goodmn, The Comparative 

 Biochemistry of the Carotenoids, Chem. Pub. Co., New York, 1954. 



5" F. H. Grimbleby and D. J. Black, Brit. J. Nutrition, 6, 393-397 (1952). 



