Goitrogenic Effects of (–)-5-Vinyl-2-Oxazolidinethione, a Goitrogen in Rapeseed, in Growing Chicks

IT HAS been reported that when rapeseed meal is fed to an animal as the main source of protein, the thyroid gland is enlarged (Turner, 1946; Blakely and Anderson, 1948a, b; Witz et al., 1950; and Klain et al., 1956), and the growth rate is decreased (Kratzer et al., 1954; Clandinin et al., 1959; and Holmes and Roberts, 1963). (–)-5-Vinyl-2-oxazolidinethione (goitrin) in rapeseed (Astwood et al., 1949; Carroll, 1949) has been known as the goitrogen which enlarges the thyroid gland and depresses the thyroidal function in an animal. Astwood et al. (1949) reported that the goitrogenic effects of goitrin was equal to thiouracil in man, and lino (1961) reported it to be 0.66 times that of thiouracil in rats. Progoitrin, the precursor of goitrin was isolated and identified as a thioglycoside (Greer, 1956), and Greer and Deeney (1959) reported that progoitrin was converted to goitrin by myrosin in the . . .