90 THE VITAMINS 



probably always contain an ample amount of this vitamin were the 

 entire grain used. 



Relative to the vitamin B content of dried yeast, Plimmer and his 

 coworkers (1927) have assigned the following values to cereal foods: 

 (Based on maintenance tests with pigeons) 



Dried yeast 100 Oatmeal 4 



Marmite 40-50 Buckwheat 5-6 



Wheat germ 66 Bran 12-13 



Whole wheat 8-10 Middlmgs 12-13 



Rye 9 Maize 7-8 



Barley 7-8 Millet 8 



Oats 4-5 Dari 



In the Japanese navy, these authors point out, beriberi was pre- 

 vented by a ration of barley amounting to approximately one-third of 

 the dry weight of the food consumed. 



Although the different cereals apparently vary in the distribution 

 of vitamin B in their structural parts, the interior of the endosperm 

 in general contains less of the vitamin than the other parts of the 

 grain and consequently the more highly refined the mill product the 

 greater the danger that the vitamin content may be too greatly reduced. 



In wheat, vitamin B has been shown by Bell and Mendel (1922) 

 to be widely dispersed throughout the entire kernel. Their calculation 

 of the percentage distribution in the true structural parts of the grain 

 is: embryo from 8 to 16 per cent, bran 24. and endosperm from 60 

 to 68 per cent. The percentage distribution of the vitamin in the differ- 

 ent milling products calculated on the basis of the fraction of the entire 

 kernel represented by each of these milling products is patent flour 

 from to 5, first clear from 10 to 15, second clear 5, low grade 16, 

 middlings 40, and bran 24 per cent. The explanation advanced by Bell 

 and Mendel for the poverty of patent flour in this vitamin as com- 

 pared with pure endosperm is that "in the process of milling the 

 softer, more friable parts of the endosperm which are rich in this 

 vitamin adhere to the embryo and bran as they are flaked off from 

 the grain. Harder lumps of endosperm, poor in vitamin, are left be- 

 hind and when sufficiently freed from germ and bran are themselves 

 ground into fine white flour." Bell and Mendel emphasize the fact that 

 different varieties of wheat may vary widely in their content of vita- 

 min B. 



Wheat embryo has been found by Chick and Roscoe (1927) and 

 ground whole wheat by Sherman and Axtmayer (1927) to be rela- 

 tively richer in vitamin B than in vitamin G. 



Nearly all of the vitamin B of maize or corn has been found by 



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