| Abstrakt: |
The vitamins may be generally grouped into two classes, namely: (1) those soluble in fats and (2) those soluble in aqueous solutions. Vitamins A, D, and E are found nearly exclusively in association with fats, and vitamins B and C with substances soluble in water.The reason for the distribution of vitamins in certain vehicles has not been definitely explained, although it may be readily surmised that specific vitamins probably deteriorate in solutions other than those in which they are found in nature. We have encountered such deterioration of vitamin D when emulsified in water.Shelling and Tidwell1prepared oil-in-water emulsions of viosterol, which were miscible in water and in milk. They suggested that such emulsions offered a means by which larger amounts of vitamin D might be added to milk than was possible to impart by direct irradiation of the milk or by feeding vitamin D preparations to the cow. Subsequent clinical experiments2revealed that the emulsifiedoily solutions of vitamin D, when added to milk, were more than 10 times as potent as viosterol in oil, not so treated. Thus, in a study of 134 cases of severe rickets studied by Shelling and Hopper,3many of which were partially or entirely refractory to ordinary doses of cod liver oil, at least 20 to 30 drops of viosterol were required to heal the rickets completely in an average time of 3.7 months. On the other hand, with emulsions of viosterol, severe forms of rickets may be healed with as little as 1.5 drops of viosterol (125 Steenbock or 350 International units) in an average time of about 3 months.In the first few months of the experiment, several rachitic children were given the emulsion and healing took place as expected, but after that time healing occurred very slowly and, in some instances, not at all. |
