FISHERY INDUSTRIES OF THE U^^TED STATES, 193 7 187 



by Dr. Hugo W. Nilson, assistant pharmacologist; S. R. Pottinger, 

 junior technologist; Charles F. Lee, junior chemist; William B. Lan- 

 ham, Jr., junior chemist; Joseph F. Puncochar, junior bacteriologist; 

 and Willis H. Baldwin and Hillman C. Harris, graduate student assist- 

 ants, with the cooperation of Professor M. H. Berry of the Dairy 

 Department, Maryland State Agricultural Experiment Station; and 

 in our Seattle laboratory under the supervision of Roger W. Harrison, 

 technologist in charge, assisted by Charles Butler, William Clegg, Louis 

 Simenson, Marie Sater, and Rhea Waterberry, chemists, assigned to 

 our laboratory by the Works Progress Administration; and with the 

 cooperation of Dr. J. S. Carver, Washington State College, Pullman, 

 Wash. 



VITAMIN CONTENT OF FISHERY PRODUCTS 



As in former years, our nutrition laboratory continued assays of 

 numerous samples of fish oils and fish-liver oils from different species 

 for content of vitamins A and D, prepared experimentally in connec- 

 tion with the byproducts program of our Seattle laboratory. We also 

 began, in cooperation with the Federated Scallop Producers Coopera- 

 tive Association, determinations of vitamins A and D in scallop waste, 

 but we had to discontinue this work before it was completed because 

 the association and the scallop industry failed to continue its support 

 in supplying samples in accordance with the laboratory schedule. 

 However, preliminary studies indicated a higher vitamin A potency 

 in scallop waste than we have found in the flesh of other species of fish 

 or shellfish previously analyzed. 



In a previous section in this report, some studies were discussed 

 which were started in 1937 in connection with the use of ultraviolet 

 rays in killing bacteria in fish. In addition to the value of these rays 

 in reducing the bacterial count in fish so treated, preliminary analyses 

 by the nutrition laboratory showed that the irradiation of haddock 

 fillets by this mercury vapor lamp increased the vitamin D potency 

 of the samples. If more complete data or further studies in this con- 

 nection substantiate these conclusions, this discovery will have con- 

 siderable commercial significance, as fish fillets or other edible portions 

 of fish could be irradiated in the same manner as milk is now treated 

 and sold by dairies at a premium as "vitamin D milk." 



Recent discoveries in the chemistry of vitamins have shown that 

 the substance which chemists originally classified under the term, 

 "vitamin B," is really a combination of vitamins. This combination 

 or substance is now known as the vitamin B complex. Newer knowl- 

 edge of vitamins, being obtained by scientists every day, is gradually 

 identifying the vitamins which make up this complex. This means 

 that the interpretations of the results of nearly all of the previous, 

 analyses of vitamin B and vitamin G, which formerly was classed 

 with vitamin B in fishery products and in other foods, must be modified 

 in accordance with these more recent discoveries. Therefore, the 

 Bureau's nutrition laboratory has found it necessary to devote a 

 limited amount of time to the development or standardization of 

 new methods of analysis for these vitamins, constituting the vitamin 

 B complex, for application to fishery products. Studies of the vitamin 

 B complex in oysters and in three ]bypes of canned salmon have been 

 begun. 



