XI. REQUIREMENTS 385 



in decreasing the cholesterol content of guinea pigs given fats per os. 

 More recently, Waldstein and Steigmann^'- noted that inositol had no 

 effect on either the degradation or excretion of choline when these sub- 

 stances were administered orally or by intravenous injection. Observations 

 somewhat along the same lines were made by Diognardi and Magnoni/^ 

 who observed that 300 mg. of inositol daily did not alter the amounts of 

 trigonellin excreted in the urine by a normal subject. 



D. SYNTHESIS IN THE BODY 

 A. T. MILHORAT 



The demonstration of Needham^ that rats could be maintained on 

 inositol-free diets for periods as long as 8 months without diminution m the 

 inositol content of the body gave evidence that inositol can be synthesized 

 in the organism. Even more convincing were his studies in which inosituria 

 was experimentally induced for a period of 110 days; although there was a 

 continuous and vigorous excretion of inositol, and the diet contained no 

 inositol, there was no change in the amount of inositol contained in the 

 tissues of the rat. Previously VohP^ had isolated more inositol from the 

 urine of a person with diabetes insipidus than could have been contained 

 in the diet. 



Woolley- showed that the mouse can synthesize inositol when panto- 

 thenic acid is present in the diet, but it is unable to carry out the syn- 

 thesis when pantothenic acid is absent. He observed, further, that the 

 intestinal tract of animals which showed spontaneous cure of alopecia 

 contained microorganisms which could synthesize more inositol than could 

 the organisms from the intestines of mice that did not recover spontan- 

 eously. Mitchell and IsbelP^ also have presented evidence of synthesis of 

 inositol in the intestinal tract of rats. Johansson and Sarles^^ have reviewed 

 the general problem of intraintestinal synthesis of the B vitamins. Fenton 

 et al.^'' studied the cecal flora of mice and found that the presence or absence 

 of inositol in the diet appeared to have no influence on the number of or- 

 ganisms present. Seeler and Silber^** were able to maintain dogs in apparent 

 good health for a period of as long as 4.5 years on a diet containing no sig- 

 nificant amounts of inositol. These findings might suggest a synthesis of 

 inositol in the body, but of course they do not offer definitive evidence. 



32 S. S. Waldstein and F. Steigmann, Am. J. Digest. Diseases 19, 323 (1952). 



" N. Diognardi and A. Magnoni, Acta Vitaminol. 5, 264 (1951) [C. A. 46, 5707 (1952)]. 



34 H. Vohl, Arch, physiol. Heilk. 17, 410 (1858). 



" H. K. Mitchell and E. R. Isbell, Univ. Texas Publ. 4237, 125 (1942). 



3« H. R. Johansson and W. R. Sarles, Bacterial. Revs. 13, 25 (1949). 



" P. F. Fenton, G. R. Cowgill, M. A. Stone, and D. H. Justice, J. Nutrition 42, 257 



(1950). 

 38 A. O. Seeler and R. H, Silber, Am. J. Med. Sci. 209, 692 (1945). 



