Vitamin B1 in the animal organism

Abstract

I. The highest concns. of Vitamin B1 in rats'' tissues were observed in the heart and liver (2.7 and 2.6 I.U./g.). The total storage in muscle, where the concn. was 0.6 I.U./g., accounted for about 50% of the total reserves in the body of the "saturated" rat, while that in liver amounted to about 50%. Maximum storage was attained when the intake of vitamin B1 was about 30 I.U. per day.[long dash]II. Vitamin B1 balance experiments were carried out on rats kept on diets containing varying levels of the vitamin, in the form of an activated acid clay. The "bradycardia" method of assay was used. The urinary excretion of vitamin B1 was found to increase with increased dietary intake; 0.5-15 I.U. of vitamin B, in the faeces (per day) was attributable to bac- terial synthesis in the intestine of the rat. The faecal excretion of the vitamin was insignificant with intakes of less than 30 I.U. daily, above which level the faecal output increased as the intake became higher. About 30 I.U. were unaccounted for in the urine and faeces.