The Biological Potency of Vitamin A in Whale Liver Oil and its Molecular Distillates

(i) In the preliminary experiment, the potency of mixed whale-liver oil (mixture of Fin whale- and Blue whale-liver oil) was tested according to the observation of the increase in body weight. The biological potency of original oil and its distilled oil indicated one half of the value obtained by spectro-photometric observation. (ii) The potency of Blue whale-liver oil was determined quantitatively. The biological vitamin A potency of original oil and distilled oil corresponded to 55.6% and 65.7% respectively of the value estimated physico-chemically with Beckman spectro-photometer. (iii) At the end of the experiment, vitamin A and Kitol in the livers and faeces of the animals were extracted with soybean oil, and E value at 328 mμ and 290 mμ of the wave length were estimated with spectro-photometer. No difference between the groups fed on whale-liver oil and fish-liver oil was observed. (iv) Death rate and severe eye diseases of animals were discussed. There was no significant difference between the groups administered with whale-liver oil and standard fish-liver oil.