Brit J. Nutr. (1953), ¥7, 385 A) QS Vitamin By, content of some articles of Indian diets and effect of cooking on it By D. K, BANERJEE ano J. B. CHATTERJEA (Received 21 January 1963—Revised 17 April 1963) | Vitamin By deficiency due to dietary inadequacy is not uncommon in India (Banerjee, Hosain & Chatterjea, 19593 Banerjee & Chatterjea, 1960). To know how to prevent this deficiency, itis necessary to have precise information on the distribution Bf vitamin By in Indian foods and the availability of the vitamin after cooking. Our study was undertaken to provide this information. EXPERIMENTAL ‘The substances analysed were muscles from fourteen varieties of fish and prawn, muscle and liver of the goat, duck egg (yolk), cow's milk and twenty items of vegetable crigin, including rice and pulses. Materials were analysed in (a) the narural raw (ancooked) state, (2) after boiling, (e after cooking (frying and boiling). "Raw material, ‘Phe fresh material (5 g) was homogenized with distilled water and tronsferted into a fiask, To this homogenate, 25 mg of powdered papain (Biddle Sawyer & Co. Ind. Pvt. Ltd) and o°1 ml of 1% (w/v) sodium eyanide solution were added, and the mixture was incubated under toluene at 37° for 72h, For vegetables, rome papain were used, After incubation, 40 ml of acetate buffer (pH 4'5) were ‘added to the homogenate, which was then autoclaved at 10 Ib pressure for 15 min and ‘cooled, and the volume was made up to 200 ml, Next the extract was filtered and from the clear filtrate a measured portion was analysed for its vitamin B,, content. © Boiled material. The fresh material (5 g) was boiled with distilled water for 15 min and homogenized. The homogenate, together with the boiling water, was transferred to flask and was treated similarly to that from the raw material. Cooked material. "Phe fresh material (5 g) was fried with mustard oil in an open aluminium pan for 10 min at a temperature varying between 110° and 120°, The fried material was then boiled with distilled water for x3 min and homogenized. The ng water, was transferred to a flask and treated homogenate, together with the co in the same way as the raw materials, Control. The requisite amount of powdered papain and or ml of 1% (w/*) sodium cyanide solution were added to 30 mil distilled water and incubated under toluene at $y" for 72 h. After ineubation, the mixture was treated in the same way a5 the raw inaterial and its vitamin By activity was measured. Vitanin By asiay. Vitarain By was assayed by the method of Ross (1952) with Euglena gracilis var. bacillars as test organism.one eee 386 D. K, Banerjee ano J.B, Cuarrenyra 1963 RESULTS Vitamin Byg in the rato materials. Articles of vegetable origin did not show any vitamin B,, activity. Results obtained with those of animal origin in the raw st after boiling or after cooking, are recorded in ‘Table 1. Results shown in the whi. are the means of three observations for each sample, Some of the materials were analysed on two different occasions and are represented by two mean values. Goat liver was found to be the richest source of vitamin Byyexamined, A fait amount was present in nine out of fourteen varieties of fish, of which Tapsey (Polynenue Parodisews) and Tangra (Mystus vittatus) seemed to be the richest. Goat muscle wos found not to be a good source of the Eg yolk was a better source than goat muscle or some fish. Table 1. Vitamin By activity (Euglena gracilis assay) of articles of Indian diets, and effect of boiling and cooking Loss after cooking ata Vitarsin By activiey percentage of (uatieo g fresh weight) activity of Local eee ‘boiled Jem name Raw Boiled Cooked material Fish (muscle) Catla buchanan Cotta o7, 16 oys y00 es oor Boa Loterealarifer Versi x tS os seo Labeo rita Rui 36 = A = o 1 oss 938 Mgstuscitarus Tangra MIB ye8 to ors. 7 #8537 237 Heteropmowtisforslis —— Singee 44 T36k ar Claret batrachus ‘Magur 3 39 3. ios Anabas tetudiness Kat ¥9 rH eas 409 Mult paren Parsey 36 "7 re as 56 27 20 339 Gtosagobies girs Bele 32 ae 2s 38 Opicephalus siriatwe Shale Fe - 3. Apocrypteslaverolatur Grey 26 = 34 Wetter attu Boal 46 ea Hil ie ist £ +s os oe Polsnomsparadivous rey 2 re. on 530 Prawn Bagds,chingroe rer ons a Meat oat muscle Mangsha re 025 8 66 mS 7 a : 0st liver Mete 40104 260 750 ee, duck Milly cow's Vitamin By in the boiled materials. The effect of boiling was studied in eleven varieties of fish; in nine, the values after boiling were lower than in the raw materials. In goat muscle also the value was lower after boiling. In three vatieties of fish, and in goat liver on one occasion vitamin Bys activity was higher after boiling than in the rawVol. 17 Dietary vitamin B,, and effect of cooking 387 state, Higher values were noted on two occasions in a single variety of fish (Catla Juchanani) and on one occasion in the other two types (Mystus vittatus and Hilsa ituha). Egg yolk and cow's milk were found to contain significant amounts of the vitamin after boiling. Vitamin Byy in the cooked materials. Except for one variety of fish (Glossogobius irs), the vitamin B, activity ofthe materials was lower after cooking than when they tere either raw or boiled. ‘This low value was noted even for the four articles that Thowed higher values after boiling. Vitamin Byy activity after cooking was less than that after boiling in twelve out of thirteen materials studied, ‘The amount lost in cooking 25 a percentage of that left after boiling varied from 23°7 to 964. Discussion ‘The figures for the vitamin By, contents of Indian fish agreed well with the results jecorded by Teeri, Loughlin & Josselyn (1957) for some of the species of fish con- fimed in New England, USA. Our values also compare well with those recorded by Brackkan (1959) and Barrett & Widdowson (1960). But the values reported by Sreenivasamurthy, Swaminathan & Subrahmanyan (1955), Ueno (1956) end Love (1961) were somewhat higher. ‘The viternin By, content of goat muscle was low end Sailr to those reported for mutton and lamb leg (Schweigert, Scheid & Marquette, tsi; Barrett & Widdowson, 1960). Goat liver was found to be the richest souree of vitamin By examined, the value found being similar to that given by Shenoy & Ramasarma (1954) and also to that for beef liver reported by Schweigert etal. (1951). Our value for goat liver was much higher than that recorded by Sreenivasamurthy at al, (1955). A low value was also recorded for sheep liver (Barrett & Widdowson, ‘o6o}- ge yolk contained asignificant amountof vitamin By, similar to that reported by Sreenivasamurthy et al. (1953). A lower value for hen's egg was reported by Barrett & Widdowson (1960). ; “The vitamin Byy content of cow's milk was found to be close to that reported by other workers (Collins, Harper, Schreiber & Elvehjem, x9513 Antener, 1958-93 Srecnivesamurthy, Narnbudripad & Iya, 19533 Macy, Kelly & Sloan, 1953)- The vitamin B,, content of raw whole mill, determined by rat assay, ranged between 5°5 Ind 4 sgil. (Hartman, Dryden & Riedel, 1956). Gregory, Ford & Kon (1958) reported wide variations in the vitamin By, content of cow's milk. The vitamin Bix fcivty of goat liver, egg yolk and fish agreed well withthe values for lamb liven a solk and fish, respectively, a8 reported by Lichtenstein, Beloian & Murphy (1961), 'A comparative analysis of the vitamin By, contents of the raw and boiled materials would indicate that boiling as done in our experiments may lead to a considerable loss Of the vitamin, ‘This observation cannot be satisfactorily explained, since eyanoco- Ralamin itself was not destroyed. The explanation may lie in the method of preparing the eamples for assay. To begin with, the raw food was homogenized and incubated, rithout prior heat treatment, under toluene for 72h at 37° in presence of papain. Toluene did not necessarily prevent all bacteria from growing, and there was the lity that bacterial synthesis of vitamin By, had occurred during this incubation