PANTOTHENIC ACID 



commercial processing destroyed 20 to 40 % of the pantothenic acid 

 present in the raw meat. 



Fresh cheese contained 1-3 to 9-6 /xg. of pantothenic acid per g.^ 

 and the amount increased 2- to 3-fold on ripening. Sorghum con- 

 tained 10-3 to 15-9 /xg. per g.^^ 



According to P. B. Pearson and C. J. Burgin ^^ the richest known 

 source of pantothenic acid is royal jelly, the special food given to 

 those bee larvae that are destined to become queens. Many attempts 

 have been made to determine the factor or factors in royal jelly re- 

 sponsible for this astonishing transformation, for queen and worker 

 bees are produced from identical larvae, the difference in development 

 being due solely to the nature of the food which each receives. It 

 has frequently been suggested that the activity of royal jelly may be 

 due to the presence of vitamins, especially the fertility vitamin E, or 

 of hormones, especially the gonadotrophic hormone, but the amounts 

 of these factors present are not sufficiently high to account for this 

 remarkable effect of royal jelly. Pearson and Burgin, using the micro- 

 biological method of assay, found that royal jelly contained an average 

 of 183 /Ltg. per g. of fresh weight or 511 /xg. per g. of dry weight, as 

 compared with 200 and 180 /xg. per g. of dry weight respectively for 

 yeast and liver, the next richest sources. Kitzes et al.^^ confirmed the 

 high pantothenic acid content of royal jelly, obtaining a value of 320 

 /xg. per g., but they also showed that it contained an exceptionally 

 large amount of biotin (page 424). A satisfactory explanation of the 

 curious effect of royal jelly does not yet appear to have been found, 

 as pantothenic acid alone will not bring about the transformation of 

 bee larvae into queens (see page 390). Pollen contained about 30 

 /xg. of pantothenic acid per g.^^, 13 a,nd honey only 0-55 /xg. per g.^^ 



Tea contains about 30 /xg. of pantothenic acid per g.^* 



References to Section 7 



1. W. H. Peterson and C. A. Elvehjem, /. Nutrition, 1939, 18, 181. 



2. H. A. Waisman, O. Mickelsen and C. A. Elvehjem, ibid., 247. 



3. T. H. Jukes, ibid., 1942, 21, 193. 



4. L. J. Teply, F. M. Strong and C. A. Elvehjem, ibid., 1942, 24, 167. 



5. A. M. Copping, Biochem. J., 1943, 37, 12. 



6. P. B. Pearson and A. L. Darnell, /. Nutrition, 1946, 31, 51. 



7. J. M. Lawrence, B. L. Herrington and L. A. Maynard, ibid., 1946, 



32, 73. 



8. H. A. Waisman, L. M. Henderson, J. M. Mclntire and C. A. 



Elvehjem, ibid., 1942, 23, 239. 



9. R. A. Sullivan, E. Bloom and J. Jarmol, ibid., 1943, 25, 463. 



10. G. Knox, V. G. Heller and J. B. Sieglinger, Food Res., 1944. 9» 89- 



11. P. B. Pearson and C. J. Burgin, Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. Med., 1941, 



48, 415. 



364 



