Phytic acid and phytase in cereals / by Sir Edward Mellanby.

  • Mellanby, Edward, Sir, 1884-1955.
Date:
[1944?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Phytic acid and phytase in cereals / by Sir Edward Mellanby. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    1/6 (page 1)
    PHYTIC ACID AND PHYTASE IK CEREALS Letter to the Editor, Nature, 1944, 154, 394 PY SIB EDWARD MELLANBY _ The interesting letter of Dr. R. A. McCance and Miss « Widdowson in Nature of May 27 (1), in which they point out the relatively large quantity of phytase in wheat as compared with oats, gives me the opportunity of recording some further facts on this important practical issue which supplement, those given in the letter/ This is no mere academic quest! ., but concerns what in the past certainly Has been and in ray view possibly still is, the most prominent problem of malnutrition affecting people in Great Britain. * i Cereals form such a large part of the national dietary, namely, about 50 per cent, that, if they have a nutritional defect, it is certain to be of great consecsuence to health and development. What we must aim at is to get all the advantages of these valuable foods and at the same time to eliminate or prevent any baneful action they may have. Now, cereals have such a defect in that they are not only poor in calcium content but also they can, under some con¬ ditions, interfere with the availability to the body of calcium of other foods (2). This is of special importance to the child and adolescent, whose needs for calcium to incorporate in the growing bones, the developing teeth and other organs are great. In the adult animal also cereals can denude the bones of their calcium salts under some conditions. Contrary to all expectation, cereals such as oatmeal and maize, which contain most calcium, are just those which can interfere most with calcium deposition during grovrth. In 1939 it was found that one substance in cereals which plays a large part in this harmful action is phytic acid (3). Any form of treatment which reduces the phytic acid in cereals either by eliminating it or by hydrolysing it will reduce the rickets-producing or anti calcifying effect. It was found that malting of cereals, and, more especially, germination followed by autolysis of the crushed grain, reduce this action; and