DIGESTIBILITY OF SOME SEED OILS. 9 
Summary of digestion experiments icith soy-bean oil in a simple mixed diet. 
Experi- 
ment 
No. 
Subject. 
Pro- 
tein. 
Fat. 
Car- 
bohy- 
drates. 
Ash. 
432 
D. G. G 
Percent. 
50.2 
46.9 
57.0 
52.7 
59.9 
29.6 
65.1 
Percent. 
93.5 
92.4 
93.1 
93.0 
95.4 
93.2 
95.8 
Per cent. 
95.4 
97.2 
97.0 
97.2 
96.1 
97.1 
97.6 
Percent. 
63 5 
433 
A. J. H 
62.1 
434 
R. L. S 
54.7 
435 
440 
0. E.S 
D. G. G 
64.3 
70.6 
441 
A. J. H 
59 3 
442 
0. E. S 
75.2 
51.6 
93.8 
96.8 
64.2 
It is shown in the summary of the data reported above for the 
seven experiments with soy-bean oil that on an average the subjects 
ate 21 grams of protein, 82 grams of fat, and 366 grams of carbo- 
hydrates, and that coefficients of digestibility of these constituents 
supplied by the diet as a whole were for protein 51.6 per cent, for 
fat 93.8 per cent, and for carbohydrates 96.8 per cent. The fuel 
value of the diet was 2,285 calories. 
The values obtained for the digestibility of total fat in the indi- 
vidual experiments agree fairly closely with one another, the major- 
ity being within 1 per cent of the average value 93.8 per cent. 
In a series of experiments 1 in which the basal ration was eaten 
without the addition of fat it was found that the feces resulting 
contained a certain amount of ether-soluble material. When allow- 
ance is made in the above data for the ether extract of the feces not 
resulting from the soy-bean oil the value 93.5 per cent becomes 97.5 
per cent for the digestibility of soy-bean oil alone. 
Since the subjects reported no unusual physiological effects as a 
result of this diet, and in view of the very complete utilization of 
soy-bean oil by the body, it would seem that well-refined soy-bean oil 
should prove a satisfactory food, and could be used in the same man- 
ner and quantities as other oils commonly used in the diet. 
SUNFLOWER-SEED OIL. 
It is well known that the seeds of the sunflower (HeUanthus an- 
nuns), when subjected to pressure, yield a light yellow oil having 
properties quite similar to those of the common vegetable oils. Sun- 
flower-seed oil, which was used by American Indians for food pur- 
poses, 2 is now little used as a food oil in the United States, the 
probable reason being the demand for the seed for poultry feeding 
and the large supply of other better-known oils. In some of the 
'U, S. Dept. Agr. Bui. 310 (1915), p. 17. 
2 Iroquois Foods and Food Preparation, Can. Dept. Mines, Geol. Survey, 86 (1916), 
p. 100. 
53022°— Bull. 687—18 2 
