UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



f Ml BULLETIN No. 687 fMl 



N ellr ^' ^J^ Contribution from the States Relations Service ^i 



^3^'^^ A. C. TRUE. Director. J>3^^^ 



Washington, D. C. PROFESSIONAL PAPER. June 28, 1918 



DIGESTIBILITY OF SOME SEED OILS/ 



By A, D. Holmes, Specialist in Charge of Digestion Experiments, Office of Home 



Economics. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 



Introduction 1 



Experimental methods 2 



Corn oil 3 



Soy-bean oil 6 



Sunflower-seed oil 9 



Japanese mustard-seed oil 11 



Rapeseed oil 13 



Charlock oil 15 



Summary 17 



INTRODUCTION. 



It was pointed out in the initial paper ^ of this series that while 

 the information available regarding the digestibility of the various 

 proteins and carbohydrates was quite extensive, much less attention 

 had been given to the determination of the digestibility of the fats. 



Not only is the information regarding the digestibility of edible 

 fats limited but even when studies have been reported they were sel- 

 dom made under uniform conditions which permit of comparison. 

 Accordingly, this investigation was undertaken to obtain the coef- 

 ficients of digestibility of a large number of the edible fats, under 

 experimental conditions, as nearly as possible identical for all the 

 fats studied. 



Attention was first given to the animal fats, and the earlier 

 papers^ of this series contain reports of studies of the digestibility 

 of lard, beef fat, mutton fat (kidney fats), butter, cream, and 

 chicken, goose, egg yolk, brisket, and fish fats. The results indicate 

 that all were well digested when eaten in amounts not in excess of 

 those consumed in the ordinary dietary. More recent papers report 

 studies of the digestibility of some of the better-known vegetable 



1 Prepared under the direction of C. F. Langworthy, Chief, Office of Home Economics. 



= U. S. Dept. Agr. Bui. 310 (1915), pp. 22. 



3U. S. Dept. Agr. Buls. 310 (1915), 507 (1917). 



Note. — This bulletin records studies of the digestibility of corn oil, soy-bean oil, sun- 

 flower-seed oil, Japanese mustard-seed oil, rapseed oil, and charlock oil. It is primarily of 

 interest to students and investigators of food problems. 

 53022°— Bull. 687—18 1 



