1. Serum postheparin lipolytic activities (PHLA), triglyceride and free fatty acid concentrations were determined in children with kwashiorkor before and after treatment and also in normal control children.

2. Using the range (571–1650 μmol/l) of serum triglyceride of the control children as normal, five (20%) of the twenty-five children with kwashiorkor had low (less than 570μmol/l), thirteen (52%) had normal (571–1650, μmol/l) and seven (28%) had high (more than 1650 μmol/l) serum triglyceride levels.

3. The serum PHLA did not show any definite correlation with the level of circulating triglycerides, although the lowest levels of PHLA were found in the malnourished children with highest triglyceride level.

4. While the hepatic PHLA in the malnourished children was significantly less than control value, the extrahepatic PHLA did not differ significantly.

5. After treatment, serum PHLA rose significantly and the mean levels were within normal range.

6. Our findings suggest that a defect in catabolism of very-low-density lipoprotein caused by a low hepatic PHLA may cause hypertriglyceridaemia in children with kwashiorkor.

1. The effect of pectin on the structure and function of the rat small intestine was compared with that of a standard pellet diet and of a fibre-free basal diet.

2. The length and wet weight of the small bowel was significantly greater inpect in-fed rats than in either pellet- or basal-diet-fed rats.

3. Histological measurements of longitudinal sections from the small bowel showed a significantly greater crypt depth and muscle layer thickness in the mid-jejunum and ileum of the pectin fed rats. Villous height showed less variation.

4. The specific activity of alkaline phosphatase (EC 3.1.3.1)and leucyl-P-naphthylamidase (EC 3.4.11.1) in mucosal scrapings was significantly lower in the upper jejunum of pectin-fed rats compared with either of the other dietary groups. The differences were not so marked in mid-jejunum or ileum.

5. Glucose absorption measured in vivo from jejunal and ileal loops was similar in all three dietary groups.

6. With two minor exceptions there were no significant differences in any of these measurements between the pellet- and basal-diet-fed rats.

7. These findings could be explained by increased epithelial cell turnover caused by pectin. The possible mechanisms of this are discussed.

8. The effect of pectin on the human small bowel requires study before it can be widely prescribed in man.

1. The effects on body composition, measured by direct techniques, of a controlled 25% body-surfacearea thermal injury have been studied in two groups of forty male Wistar rats.

2. The extent of weight loss in the animals was directly related to their energy deficit resulting from a combination of injury, food intake and rate of wound healing.

3. Body fat proved the most labile source of tissue energy, decreasing to a minimum of approximately 30 g/kg body-weight.

4. Relationships between water and fat, and water and protein seen in control animals were not significantly different in the traumatized group.

1. In order to quantitatively assess the energetic significance of reduced thermoregulatory thermogenesis in the accumulation of excess body fat in genetically-obese (ob/ob) mice experiments have been conducted at four environmental temperatures (17, 23, 28 and 33°) in which young growing obese animals were pair-fed for 10 d to the ad lib. intake of lean siblings.

2. The food intake of the lean mice increased with decreasing environmental temperature: at 17° the intake was 86% higher than that at 33°.

3. The estimated gain in carcass energy of lean mice rose with increasing temperature, from 82 kJ at 17° to 150 kJ at 33°. The energy gain of the pair-fed obese mice was higher than that of the lean at all temperatures but showed a slight decrease with increasing temperature, from 231 kJ at 17° to 191 kJ at 33°.

4. Environmental temperature affected the ‘excess’ energy gain of the obese mice. At 17° the obese mice deposited 182% more energy than the lean but this difference decreased progressively with increasing temperature to 127, 62 and 27% more energy at 23, 28 and 33° respectively.

5. At all environmental temperatures the pair-fed obese mice deposited considerably less protein than their lean controls. The deposition ranged from 32% (at 17°) to 56% (at 28°) of that of the lean mice.

6. It is concluded that environmental temperature plays a major role in determining the excess energy gain of ob/ob mice receiving the same amount of food as lean controls, and that the low energy expenditure and consequent high metabolic efficiency of this mutant is due primarily to reduced thermoregulatory thermogenesis.

1. Plasma tyrosine and urinary p-hydroxyphenyl lactic acid (PHPLA) and p-hydroxyphenyl acetic acid (PHPAA) were studied in thirty patients with marasmus and twenty normal controls in the same age group.

2. In the control group conventional tyrosyluria was not observed but 30% of the group excreted high levels of PHPAA. In the group with marasmus, plasma tyrosine and urinary PHPLA and PHPAA values were significantly higher than the control values. However only 13.3% of the patients were considered to have conventional tyrosyluria and 52.3% were found to excrete high levels of PHPAA.

3. Administration of ascorbic acid resulted in a reduction of PHPLA excretion while it had no effect on PHPAA excretion.

4. It was inferred that (a) tyrosyluria in marasmus is due to the reduced activity of the hepatic enzyme 4-hydroxyphenyl pyruvate: oxygen oxidoreductase (hydroxylating, decarboxylating) (PHPPA-oxidase; EC 1. 13. 11. 27) due to the deficiency of ascorbic acid and (b) high excretion of PHPAA is related to age and nutrition of the child and is unaffected by the administration of ascorbic acid.

5. It was further inferred that urinary excretion of PHPLA is a reliable index of tyrosyluria.

1. A study was conducted in two centres in southern and northern India of the effects of the addition of ascorbic acid and protein supplements to iron, pteroylglutamic acid and cyanocobalamin, in the prophylaxis and treatment of anaemia of pregnancy.

2. A dose of 500 mg ascorbic acid/d had no beneficial effect. Women who received 15 g calcium caseinate/d showed a superior haematological response. The reasons for this are unknown, but are more likely attributable to an increased absorption of the supplemental iron than to the correction of a protein deficiency.

1. The relative efficacy of oral and parenteral iron administration in the prophylaxis and treatment of Fe-deficiency anaemia of pregnancy has been studied.

2. Intravenous administration of Fe by total dose infusion of Fe dextran was not superior to oral Fe 120 mg/d, 6 d/week for 10–12 weeks.

3. Intramuscular Fe dextran, 100 mg twice per week for 10–12 weeks, produced a significantly greater rise in mean haemoglobin concentration than oral Fe therapy.

4. The superiority of intramuscular Fe as compared with intravenous Fe is probably related to the different handling of the Fe dextran by the reticulo-endothelial system.

5. In spite of the better response to intramuscular Fe dextran, it is not recommended for public health practice because of the risks associated with its use and the much higher cost of the preparation and its delivery.

1. The calculated median daily trace element intakes /kg of exclusively-breast-fed infants at 1, 2 and 3 months of age respectively were: copper 0.075, 0.051 and 0.043 mg; iron 0.075, 0.055 and 0.048 mg; manganese 0.9, 0.6 and 0.5 μg; zinc 0.420, 0.215 and 0.150 mg. The latter values for Cu, Fe, and Zn intakes were in good agreement with earlier results, whereas the intake of Mn was lower. The intakes of trace elements by breast-fed infants seemed to be below the recommended dietary allowances (Food and Nutrition Board, 1973; WHO Expert Committee on Trace Elements in Human Nutrition, 1973).

2. There seems to be no information on trace element concentrations of breast milk related to the energy content. Such values are therefore included for breast milk from Finnish women for the 1st 6 months of lactation.

1. The intake of zinc in the West of Scotland was determined by atomic absorption spectrometry, in ninety-six items of food which make up the local standard diet for 1 week.

2. The diet contained less Zn than the recommended daily allowance ((US) National Academy of Sciences, 1974). This finding either indicates the need for a revision of the suggested allowances or suggests that a change of diet is necessary.

3. The change could be made simply by the substitution of wholemeal flour for white flour. Other changes in diet were considered but they were unlikely to be acceptable. Even with changes the requirement of pregnant or lactating women would not be met. If the recommended allowances are valid these women must be deficient in Zn.

1. The effect of varying protein intake at two energy levels of 334 and 418 KJ/kg body-weight was studied in four preschool children belonging to the low socio-economic group.

2. Results indicated a curvilinear relationship between N intake and N retention. From this relationship, the protein requirement of the children at adequate energy intake was calculated.

3. At adequate energy intake (418 KJ/kg body-weight) the protein requirement of the children was 1.33 g /kg. On decreasing the energy intake by 20% to 334 KJ /kg body-weight the protein requirement was found to be increased by 20% to 1.64 g/kg.

4. Based on this study, a safe level of protein intake for Indian preschool children subsisting on a diet based predominantly on vegetable proteins has been suggested.

1. Sheep equipped with rumen and abomasal cannulas were given ad lib. access to ground and pelleted lucerne (Medicago sativa) hay except for periods of up to 6 h immediately before experimental sessions in which food intake was measured while various stomach compartments were either distended or subjected to tactile stimulation from a probe.

2. Inserting a probe, consisting of two collapsed balloons tied onto the end of a polyethylene tube, into the reticulum depressed intake by 24% after 30 min of feeding (P < 0.025). Compensatory feeding was observed during the 30 min period immediately following removal of the probes. There were no effects of having a probe in the abomasum.

3. Distension of the reticulum with 0–800 ml water in a balloon depressed intake by 0.2 g/ml after 30 min of feeding (P < 0.05). Removing the balloons from the animals allowed them to make up the deficit in intake completely within 30 min. Distending the rumen by 800 ml had no effect on intake (P < 0.05). Distending the abomasum with up to 1000 ml water in a balloon depressed intake by 0.11 g/ml after 30 min of feeding with compensatory feeding being significant (P < 0.05) but incomplete.

4. Combinations of reticular distension up to 800 ml and of abomasal distension up to 1200 ml did not have additive depressing effects on intake.

Adult male Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica) were starved for 48 or 60 h and then refed for either 24 or 48 h. Weight and lipid content of carcass and livers were determined, as was the lipid content of plasma. In addition, the activities of acetyl-CoA carboxylase (EC 6.4.1.2; CBX), fatty acid synthetase (FAS), ATP citrate lyase (EC 4.1.3.8; CCE) and malate dehydrogenase (decarboxylating) (NADP) (EC 1.1.1.40; ME) were assayed in liver and in abdominal and neck adipose tissues (AAT and NAT, respectively).

Body-weight and carcass lipids failed to return to normal in quail that had been starved for 48 h and refed during 24 h. When starving lasted 60 h, carcass lipids almost resumed the normal level only after 48 h of refeeding. All refeeding treatments caused a 2–3-fold increase in liver weight, with a parallel rise in fat content.

In the livers of the refed quail the specific activities of all enzymes, except CBX, reached or slightly exceeded pre-starvation levels. Because of liver enlargement, the total activities of the lipogenic enzymes in the starved–refed quail exceeded pre-starvation levels. In the normally-fed quail the contribution of AAT and NAT to total lipogenesis was insignificant, and in the starved–refed birds it still remained very small compared to that of liver, despite the pronounced relative increase of lipogenic enzyme activities in these adipose tissues.

1. Twenty leaf-protein concentrates (LPC), were produced from different crops and by different processes, the latter being designed to retain maximum nutritional value of the samples.

2. The establishment of conditions for the use of CI Acid Orange 12 in a commercial dye-buffer reagent for the determination of protein and reactive (available) lysine in LPC was investigated.

3. Values for protein by dye-binding correlated well with those for tungstic-acid-precipitated nitrogen (×6.25).

4. Some LPC samples showed a loss of reactive lysine, the greatest loss being associated with the most severe processing conditions.

5. For the LPC samples studied, dye-binding provided a convenient method for the concurrent determination of protein and reactive lysine.

1. Twenty-eight leaf-protein concentrate (LPC) samples, subjected to different thermal treatments, were produced from five curd batches. For these samples, the fluorodinitrobenzene (FDNB)-reactive lysine values gave closer agreement with dye-binding lysine (DBL) than with the dye-binding capacity (DBC).

2. No relationship was established between the dye-bound-after-propionylation (DBAP) and the histidine+arginine value.

3. Comparison of dye-bound-protein values with those for tungstic-acid-precipitated nitrogen ×6.25 for the LPC samples showed the heat-damaged samples to lie below the regression line for the other samples.

4. Reactive-lysine values by dye-binding and by FDNB methods correlated well with total lysine, but the slopes of the regression line indicated closer agreement for values for samples not damaged by heat.

5. The correlation coefficients between DBC and total basic amino acids, DBC and histidine+arginine+DBL, and DBC and histidine+arginine+FDNB-reactive lysine were similar.

6. There was no correlation between the lightness of colour of the LPC samples and the availability of lysine.

1. In order to establish whether or not there is a change in the relative rates of anabolism and catabolism of amino acids in the livers of lambs as they mature, a study has been made in isolated perfused livers obtained from foetal, suckling and ruminating lambs. The livers were perfused in a recirculating system and a mixture of amino acids (casein hydrolysate) was infused as substrate in the presence and absence of glucagon.

2. The oxygen consumption of the livers per unit weight increased as the lambs matured but the uptake of α-amino nitrogen declined. A comparison of the rates of O2 consumption and substrate uptake indicated that in foetal lambs less than 20% of the amino acids could have been oxidized, whereas in ruminating lambs all the amino acids taken up could have been oxidized.

3. In livers obtained from foetal lambs, the rate of urea production per unit weight of liver was approximately double that observed in ruminating lambs. Comparison of the rate of urea production and α-NH2-N uptake indicated that more than 60% of the substrate uptake was used for non-catabolic processes in the foetal lambs, whereas in ruminating animals all the α-NH2-N taken up could be accounted for as urea.

4. Gluconeogenesis could not be detected in lambs at any age studied and glucagon had no effect on any of the parameters studied.

1. Preruminant calves, fitted with abomasal and re-entrant ileal cannulas, were given, at intervals of 2–3 d by infusion into the absomasum, a series of five single experimental feeds containing heated soyabean flour (product B) as the only protein source. The calves were sensitized in this way to a constituent in the soya beans and by the fifth feed showed a number of digestive disturbances. Further test feeds were then given in which heated soya-bean flour was sometimes replaced by soya-bean products prepared under laboratory or commercial conditions by treating I part fat-free raw soya-bean meal with either I part (product M) or 4 parts (product L) ethanol (750 ml/l) at 78–80° and evaporating the whole mixture to dryness, or by extracting I part meal with 4 parts aqueous ethanol under similar conditions (product K). Products M, L and K were heated with steam and finely ground. Feeds prepared from casein and from commerical ethanol-extracted concentrate (product D) were also examined.

2. Measurements were made of transit time through the small intestine, flow rate of ileal digesta, recovery of polyethylene glycol (a water-soluble marker added to the feed) and net nitrogen absorption up to the distal ileum. Compared to feeds based on casein, feeds containing products K, L or M showed some differences in digesta movement and N uptake, but much less disturbance than feeds containing product B. Products prepared by extracting soya-bean meal with ethanol appeared to be slightly superior to those prepared from meal treated with ethanol, but the differences were not significant.

3. Weanling rats were used to assess the nutritive value of soya-bean products by an N balance method. Digestibilities (mean 0.948) and biological values (mean 0.860) obtained for products B, D, K and L did not differ significantly.

4. Results confirmed that extracting soya-bean meal with hot aqueous ethanol improved its value for calf feeding and indicated that at least part of the effect was due to the destruction of a toxic constituent present in the soya bean which probably acted by inducing a gastrointestinal allergy.

Zinc-deficient (ZD), weight-restricted (WR), pair-fed (PF) and ad lib. -fed (AL) Sprague-Dawley male rats were killed after feeding the respective Zn-deficient and Zn-supplemented diets from 3 to 8 weeks of age. Animals killed at the start of the experiment served as a baseline control (BC).

Four different skeletal muscles – biceps brachii, soleus, plantaris and extensor digitorum longus (EDL) – were studied for changes in weight, the number and diameter of muscle fibres and Zn concentration.

The soleus muscle had the highest concentration of Zn. It was the only muscle to reduce its Zn concentration due to Zn deficiency.

There was a loss of muscle fibres during normal growth (groups BC v. AL) in the soleus muscle (P < 0.05). The estimated length of muscle and the diameter of the muscle fibres in all four muscles increased significantly (P < 0.001). Therefore postweanling growth appears to occur as a result of longitudinal and transverse increases in the dimensions of these muscles.

The reduction in muscle fibre number in ZD rats compared to BC animals may occur within the range of expected fibre loss during normal growth. Fibre loss in ZD rats may be more affected by feeding-pattern-dependent metabolic changes than by a deficiency of Zn per se (groups ZD v. WR). Soleus fibre loss in ZD rats may be related to the high Zn concentration in this muscle.

The effect of Zn deficiency per se on muscle fibre diameter may be inaccurately interpreted by comparing the ZD animals with their PF and AL controls. There was no significant difference in fibre diameter in any of the four muscles when ZD and WF rats were compared.

1. Sheep were injected with varying doses of urea into the rumen and changes in the amount of saliva secreted from one parotid gland were studied. When the dose of urea was 0.1–0.2 g/kg, the secretion under- went no change. When the dose was 0.3 g/kg. the secretion was inhibited. When the dose was 0.4 or 0.5 g/kg, there was a marked inhibition in the secretion.

2. There was a close relationship between the ammonia level of the jugular blood and the inhibition of salivary secretion. When the ammonia level exceeded approximately 0.28 mmol/l, the secretion was inhibited abruptly.

3. Salivary secretion and rumen movement were inhibited when the blood ammonia level exceeded 0.28 mmoljl, after injection of ammonium acetate into the jugular vein.

4. Based on the results mentioned previously, the mechanism of inhibition on the secretion of parotid saliva is discussed in relation to the domestic ruminant in which urea had been injected into the rumen.

1. Heat production and heart rate of seven steers were measured simultaneously using either a calori- metric chamber or head-cage.

2. The relationship between heat production and heart rate for each animal was best described by linear regression.

3. Differences between individual animals made separate ‘calibration equations’ necessary for each animal.

4. Accuracy of prediction of heat production from heart rate was better than ±10% in all instances.

5. It is concluded that frequent measurement of heart rate appears to offer a practical method for esti- mation of heat production of free-range animals.