Nutritive Value of Casein as Influenced by Alcohol Extraction.

The nutritive quality of crude casein is reduced by continuous extraction with hot 95% ethanol. These results confirm the observations of Hartman and Gary. Rats fed rations containing such extracted casein grow at a reduced rate and develop a characteristic hair loss. The alcohol extracts obtained from the extraction of crude casein do not increase the rate of growth of rats ingesting extracted casein but do prevent the characteristic hair loss. The growth rate of rats ingesting alcohol extracted casein can be increased to normal by feeding fresh liver. The analysis of the extracted casein and the crude casein for 14 amino acids following enzymatic or acid hydrolysis failed to show any appreciable differences.