The Characterization of a Growth Inhibitor of Glandless Cottonseed

AS PART of a feeding test designed to evaluate the nutritional value of glandless cottonseed, which is essentially free of gossypol, the authors (1961) found that the nutritional value of the meals for the chick could be greatly improved by heating the flaked seed kernels in the presence of added water prior to extraction of the oil with commercial hexane or by extracting the oil from the seed with a homogenous mixed solvent composed of hexane, acetone, and water. These findings have since been confirmed by Hill (1964) with the chick and by György (1963) using the rat as the experimental animal. Since these meals contained only traces of gossypol (0.00 percent free and 0.02 percent total), the likelihood that the observed change was due to reduced gossypol toxicity was very remote (Lyman et al., 1953; Heywang and Bird, 1955; and Couch et al, 1955). Associated with the increased growth…