192 
Jourml of Agricultural Research 
Vol. XXVHI, No. 2 
EFFECT OF GOSSYPOL 
One of the effects of feeding gossypol was diarrhea. Another was loss of appe¬ 
tite, which usually occurred soon after the administration of as little as 450 parts 
per million in the diet to both cats and rabbits, although some rabbits withstood 
this concentration for a time. The highest concentration on which the appetite 
of rabbits was maintained was 225 parts per million of gossypol in the diet. No 
disturbances of appetite in cats were noted from 112 parts of gossypol per million 
of diet, but with 225 parts loss of appetite was common. In comparing the two 
species allowance must be made for the high moisture content of the cat diet as 
well as for the absolute bulk of food eaten. Rats apparently are decidedly less 
sensitive, for they withstand from three to six times greater concentrations of 
gossypol in the diet, despite the fact that in proportion to their size they consume 
larger quantities of food than cats or rabbits (10). 
METABOLISM OF ANIMALS UNDERGOING GOSSYPOL POISONING 
A study with gossypol similar to that of Wells and Ewing (11) on the meta¬ 
bolism of animals undergoing cottonseed poisoning seemed desirable. Espec¬ 
ially did it seem important to maintain the appetite of the test animals in order 
to avoid the nitrogen fluctuation which in the experiments of Wells and Ewing 
may have obscured one of the effects of the intoxication. While some trouble 
was encountered in keeping the animals eating the entire ration, this was done 
successfully in the case of one cat, although after several feedings of gossypol, 
the ration was not consumed as rapidly as before. There was also some 
trouble from diarrhea. This was controlled by feeding bone ash and also by cut¬ 
ting the food allowance to the minimum. 
The data on the intake and outgo of nitrogen are given in Table I. During 
the laboratory hours the urine was collected when voided, and preserved. At 
the end of the periods, which lasted from one to several days, the urine was always 
pressed out of the bladder and caught in a graduated cylinder. Only gentle 
house-broken female cats were used. The reliability of this procedure for dividing 
the experiment fairly accurately into periods of 24 hours or multiples thereof was 
also demonstrated by data on control periods. Many times no urine was voided 
during the 24 hours. Complete specimens were therefore pressed out into the 
cylinder at one time. A charcoal marker was used so that the feces could be 
separated. Usually periods longer than those used in collecting the urine were 
employed. 
It seems justifiable to conclude that for the period during which the diet con¬ 
sisted of a daily ration of ground lean meat, prepared at the beginning of the 
experiment, the administration of gossypol caused a negative nitrogen balance, 
the animal in the fore-period having been practically in nitrogen equilibrium. 
This conclusion is in harmony with the results of Macy and Mendel (5 ). The 
animals to which they fed cottonseed or cottonseed meal generally lost more weight 
than the control animals which in each of their experiments received exactly the 
same quantity of food as that eaten the previous day by the test animals. 
The interpretation of the data on the fecal nitrogen is less clear, owing to a 
lack of certainty of precise separation, of feces by markers, and the slightness of 
the increase of fecal nitrogen when gossypol was fed. Moreover, the markers 
may have had some effect on the fecal nitrogen. It seems probable, however, 
that the administration of gossypol caused a somewhat increased elimination of 
nitrogen through the feces. It is less than is to be expected from the results of 
Jones and Waterman (4), Crowther and Woodman (3), Mendel and Fine (6), 
and Rather (7). Jones and Waterman, using gossypol prepared by the writers, 
found that it retarded the digestion of cottonseed globulin and of casein in vitro. 
