The Availability of Phytic Acid Phosphorus for Chicks

THE phosphorus in cereal grains and other plant feedstuffs, commonly known as phytin phosphorus, has long been considered to be virtually unavailable to chicks or rats when supplied either in its natural form or extracted as the calcium or sodium salts. Lowe et al. (1939), Krieger et al. (1940) and Gillis et al. (1949, 1957), reported phytin phosphorus to be unavailable to the rat or chick. Matterson et al. (1946) state that although a calcium-magnesium phytate was not readily available to the chick, one should not infer that the phosphorus of natural plant material is necessarily unavailable. The reports of Heuser et al. (1943) and McGinnis et al. (1944), suggested limited availability of phosphorus from plant sources, while Krieger et al. (1941) reported yeast nucleic acid phosphorus and phospholipid phosphorus to be as available as inorganic phosphorus for the rat. Spitzer and Phillips (1945) stated that the phosphorus of soybean…