Oct. 15, 1925 
Water-Soluble Content of the Velvet Bean 
799 
Autoclaving the beans for two hours at 15 pounds pressure lessened 
their harmful effect but did not give better results than cooking on the 
water bath. 
Various alcoholic and acetic-acid extracts were made in an effort 
to obtain the growth factor free from the harmful substance. These 
extracts were added to the basal diet to represent varying per¬ 
centages of beans, but in all 
cases the extracts were less 
potent than the same percentage 
of raw beans. 
Fig. 9.—Weight curves of rats. Basal diet, plus 50 per 
cent cooked velvet beans, plus 5 per cent yeast 
SUMMARY 
Polyneuritic pigeons were re¬ 
stored to apparently normal 
health by raw velvet beans and 
by alcoholic and acetic-acid ex¬ 
tracts of velvet beans. Pigeons 
weighing 220 to 270 grams and 
receiving a diet of polished rice 
were protected against the onset 
of polyneuritis by 2 grams of 
raw velvet beans per day. This 
amount represented 9.5 to 13 
)er cent of the total daily 
bed. Velvet beans that had 
)een thoroughly extracted with 
alcohol had no protective action when fed in doses of 2 to 4 grams 
per day. 
In one case, 1 gram of raw velvet beans per day prevented the onset 
of polyneuritis during a period of 77 days’ feeding on polished rice. 
Although small amounts 
of velvet beans had a 
protective action, large 
amounts were harmful. 
This was shown by the 
death of two pigeons in five 
and nine days, respectively, 
when they were fed beans 
alone. 
When raw velvet beans 
were used as the sole source 
of vitamin B, rats grew more 
rapidly on diets that con¬ 
tained 20 per cent of beans 
than on diets that contained either 10 per cent or 50 per cent of beans. 
The addition of 5 per cent of yeast to diets carrying 20 per cent or 
50 per cent of raw beans caused a marked increase in the rate of 
S rowth. The effect was more pronounced, however, in the case of 
iets carrying the 20 per cent concentration of beans. 
Cooking velvet beans one and one-half hours on boiling water bath 
lessened but did not entirely overcome their harmful effect on rats. 
Autoclaving the beans for two hours at 15 pounds pressure was no 
more beneficial than cooking them as described above. 
o 
Fig. 10.— Weight curves of rats. Basal diet, plus 50 per cent 
autoclaved velvet beans, plus 5 per cent yeast 
