Vitamin- B in the Wheat Kernel. 



395 



194 (1941) 



The distribution of vitamin-B in the wheat kernel. 



By MARION BELL and LAFAYETTE B. MENDEL. 



[From the Sheffield Laboratory of Physiological Chemistry, Yale 

 University, New Haven, Conn.] 



Foods containing various percentages of wheat and wheat 

 derivatives, and comparable to each other in their content of all 

 known dietary essentials except such quantities of vitamin-B as 

 might be present in the wheat product used were fed to mice; 

 and the rate of growth on these foods was observed. 



When the entire wheat kernel was thus used as the source of 

 vitamin-B in the diet, admixtures of from fifteen per cent. (Mar- 

 quis spring wheat), to forty per cent. (Minnesota winter wheat), 

 were required to insure growth at a normal rate. 



The approximate concentration of vitamin-B in each of the 

 milling products from a single lot of winter wheat was estimated. 

 The "patent flour" contained no appreciable vitamin; the "first 

 clear" and "second clear" displayed about the same concentra- 

 tion as the unmilled grain; the "low grade flour" artd "bran" 

 were about twice as rich; the "standard middlings" (which in- 

 cluded the portion containing most of the embryo) were four times 

 as rich as the entire grain. 



"Hand-dissected" portions of grains, representing more nearly 

 the true structural divisions of both spring and winter wheat were 

 also investigated. Vitamin-B was found in both embryo and 

 endospern. The concentration in the embryo was several times 

 as great as that in the endosperm; but owing to the small percen- 

 tage of the entire kernel represented by the embryo, the absolute 

 quantity of vitamin-B contained therein was not more than a sixth 

 of the total amount in the grain. No difference could be detected 

 between "hand-dissected" and "commercial" embryos. The 

 presence or absence respectively of the embryo in the two ends of 

 the grain, when fed separately, did not appreciably affect the con- 

 centration of vitamin-B in these two portions. 



