Studies on the Alfalfa Inhibitor

INTRODUCTION IT HAS been known for a long time that dried alfalfa will have an adverse effect upon growing chickens when it exceeds certain levels in the feed. (Dove, 1935; Cooney et al., 1948; Lepkovsky et al., 1950.) The level of 5.0 percent was established as the upper level of dried alfalfa in feeds which chicks could tolerate without untoward effect. It was suggested (Lepkovsky et al., 1950) that alfalfa inhibitor is a compound, probably organic in nature, and was soluble in aqueous solvents and quite stable to heat, acids and alkalis. Sterols were shown, to counteract the growth-depressing action of alfalfa (Peterson, 1950a). It was suggested that the alfalfa inhibitor was a saponin or a saponin-like compound (Peterson, 1950a) and the action of cholesterol was explained by the formation of an insoluble sterol-saponin complex in the digestive tract, thereby preventing the absorption of the alfalfa inhibitor (Peterson, 1950b). This …