REPRODUCTION VITAMINES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19691, 18 July 1927, Page 15

REPRODUCTION VITAMINES

■An English writer - says The study of vitamines tenus to grow more interesting by reason oi some recent investigations, and already the question is being asked as to whether there is a vitamine of reproduction Thus, a new fat-soluble vitamine E has been found, which is abundant in the ether extract of .wheat embryos and in dried leaves of lettuce, and, among other 'things, in some fruits, like bananas, yolk of egg, the desiccated leaves of lucerne, etc. The vitamine in question has been found to- have a great influence on the productivity of rats under experiment and there is little doubt that 't has an application to other animals. Sterility is a wide subject, and there &re breeders in this'country who maintain that it ha:- a very close connection Jvith the type ol feed. That this is so has been recently indicated from the re suits obtained at the U.S.A.Department Agriculture's Dairy Experimental Farm, "jx young virgin heifers failed to breed, after which they were put on to a diet °* sprouted oats. After being fed a month ®n this food, they were again mated, tho result that five out of the six proved to be in calf. The explanation given is that either the sprouted oats contained somo essential vitamine, or otherwise that they acted as a substitute jor spring grass, which coincides with the ™ ra, l breeding season of most animals*