The orange people.
THE human race comes in various colors: white, yellow, brown, black, and all graduations in between. The American aborigines are described as Red Men and physicians are accustomed to seeing people gray with shock or blue with cyanosis. Yet to see a human as orange as an orange is so startling as to deserve comment—and to see two such cases merits reporting them, especially since no previous emphasis on such bizarre discoloration of patients can be found in medical literature. The parents of orange are the primary colors yellow and red, a fact as old as the history of pigments. Certain foodstuffs have a high content of the yellow pigment carotene, such as carrots and squash; and certain others have a high content of the red pigment lycopene, notably tomatoes and beets. Yellowish discoloration of the skin and other body tissues with carotene is referred to as carotenemia, a not
Carotenemia. A review.
Awareness of carotenemia is important to avoid confusion with jaundice and unnecessary diagnostic studies. It is surprising how little information can be found about this relatively common condition in the standard pediatric textbooks. Ingestion of excessive amounts of carrots is the usual cause of carotenemia, but it can also be associated with ingestion of many other yellow vegetables, as well as some green vegetables. Mothers may unknowingly be giving their infants large amounts of carrots in the form of commercial infant food combinations. Carotenemia is a benign condition; vitamin A poisoning does not occur despite massive doses of carotene because the conversion of carotene to vitamin A is slow. Hypothyroidism, diabetes mellitus, hepatic and renal diseases may be associated with carotenemia, but are not caused by ingestion of carotene. The absence of yellow pigment in the sclera and oral cavities distinguishes carotenemia from jaundice. A similar disorder, lycopenemia, is associated with an orange-yellow skin pigmentation as a result of ingestion of large amounts of tomatoes.
On the fractionation of β-lactoglobulin and α-lactalbumin
Abstract Existing methods for the preparation of α-lactalbumin and β-lactoglobulin are examined critically. It is proposed that the most satisfactory method for the preparation of the whey protein fraction from bovine milk is (NH 4 ) 2 SO 4 fractionation. A number of new gentle procedures for the fractionation of the whey proteins are compared with some existing methods. The distribution of total protein at various stages is determined by total Kjeldahl nitrogen and the kind of protein by starch-gel electrophoresis. The effect of variables, such as pH, salt concentration and temperature on the separation of α-lactalbumin and serum albumin from β-lactoglobulin is studied. Differences in the behavior ( e.g. solubility) of genetic variants of β-lactoglobulin are noted. The solubility of each of the major whey proteins, under similar conditions to those used in the fractionation, is compared with its solubility in the whey protein mixture. The understanding gained of factors important in the fractionation is used in recommending new procedures for α-lactalbumin and β-lactoglobulin isolation.