CHEMICAL SCIENCE

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 26, 30 July 1927, Page 20

CHEMICAL SCIENCE

iTCTAMDTFROM COD LIVER OIL.

One of the many wonderful achieve-

■ jfoents of modern science • (says the, i^-'Daily Mail), the -Oration of ;Tf:?000 quarts of cod liver oil into ono

;v.:^ uart, which contains all of the cura- :::.£& 1?c. "^tamin D. The diatoms, micro- .-.;. ecopic vegetable bodies living on the of the sea, absorb the sunlight . and . elaborate vitamins. These are ■ :-..- eaten by the minute animals called :vj,plankton; the plankton are eaten by T- the smaller fish, which in turn con■Btitute the food of the codfish. In this - ; : way the "bottled sunshine' is handed on from the diatoms to the cod, which stores the material in its liver. The "virtues of cod liver oil --side in -'s very minute content of vitamins, and in *■ recent years chemists have been work...ing on the problem of separating the yitamins from the oil. ' This" has been effected in the case ot " the product known as Ostelin, which •r.-is made in Aberdeen in the following ./.:„ way:—lnto a large tank 3000 gallons of , cod liver oil are poured. After thorough mixture (for different samples -•vary'in their content of vitamin) the oil is drawn into a special apparatus, and there put through several chemical -processes which remove the oily matter and leave only the non-oily pait, amounting to 30 to 60 gallons. This is ' : further concentrated until, finally, only l-2000th part of the oil is left, containing all the vitamin. It is ut up in quart canisters, each worth from £300 to £400, about £1 a teaspoonful, and brought to London. One drop of this is equal in vitamin content to 33 teaspoonfuls of cod liver oil, and as it would r.ot be practicable to measure

out l-33rd of a teaspoonful the preparation is diluted with glycerine, or mixed with malt, or made r> in tablets. When diluted with glycerine, a dose o£ ■ four drops is "equal to a teasponful of ...cod liver oil. As this is tasteless, and •can b e tu ken on a pieco of sugar, childTen owe a debt of gratitude to chemical science.