The Nature and Deposition of the Carotenoids from Alfalfa and Corn Gluten Meal in Chicken Skin

INTRODUCTION DEHYDRATED alfalfa meal, corn gluten meal and yellow corn are the major natural sources of xanthophyll used to provide yellow pigment for poultry products. The xanthophylls in these natural sources occur largely in the free or nonesterified state (Bickoff et al., 1954; Quackenbush et al., 1961). Dua et al. (1967), compared these feed supplements for pigmenting chicks, and found yellow corn to be superior to either alfalfa or corn gluten meal. However, a recent study at this laboratory (Kuzmicky et al., 1968) found alfalfa and corn gluten meal to be equally effective in broiler skin pigmentation when they were included in the diets of broilers at comparable xanthophyll levels. In this same study, xanthophyll extracts prepared from alfalfa produced greater pigmentation than did the xanthophylls in the whole meal, apparently due to better availability. The feeding of purified xanthophylls to poultry has shown lutein, zeaxanthin and cryptoxanthin to be…