Studies on the Ability of Sorbitol and Various Sugars to Enable Chicks and Rats to Survive Dietary Deficiencies of Single Vitamins

Abstract

The need of the chick for a dietary source of choline and thiamine was not eliminated by the substitution of 20% of sorbitol, sucrose or fructose for glucose in a purified chick diet deficient in these vitamins. This lack of influence was not affected by the presence or absence of penicillin in the diet and was observed in both chicks started on test at one day and at 6 weeks of age. Rats fed a diet deficient in thiamine and raised in a warm environment grew in a normal manner when 20% of sorbitol was included in the diet. Substitution of fructose or sucrose for sorbitol resulted in a diminution in weight gains within one or two weeks and weight losses thereafter. Weanling rats fed a thiamine-deficient diet containing sorbitol in a cool environment were unable to survive a two-week period. Feeding the vitamin B₁-deficient sorbitol diet for two weeks prior to exposure in the cool room enabled rats to live and after an adjustment period to continue a normal growth rate. Fecal excretion of riboflavin and thiamine by rats receiving thiamine-deficient diets containing sorbitol or fructose was not appreciably different and was considerably lower than excretion of these vitamins by animals receiving the vitamin B₁-supplemented control diet containing only glucose as the carbohydrate.