Evening star., 1939-04-05
BY THOMAS H. HENRY,
Star Stan Correspondent.

BALTIMORE, April S. - The
"Whey" of milk-Watery, colorless
| LIQUID left over when all the cream
is taken out to make butter and all
the casein to make cheese. Woolen
dresses or cocktail tables-is prov
ing a treasure chest or rare vita
Minis, hormones, proteins and sugar.
Thrown away or fed to the pigs
for centuries, this Cinderella of the
dairy industry is being taken apart
by United States Department of
Agriculture chemists. who have just
started a pilot plant" in Washing
ton which they hope will be the
pioneer of a large industry.
The 42OOO0.O0O pounds Of whey,
most of which now goes to waste
annually in the United States. con-
tains more than 3O0,0O0,0O0 pounds
of milk sugar for which there is a
large and increasing use in the
baking and candy industries. In the
past this sugar has been quite ex-
pensive and has found its chief
uses in sugar-coated pills. baby
foods and foods for invalids. The
Government chemists, they reported
today to the American Chemical
Society meeting here, have devised
methods by which much of this
sugar can be taken out in pure form
by a relatively inexpensive process.
This process as eXemplified in the
pilot plant, they believe, will make
it possible for private manufacturers
to buy most of the farmers waste
whey.
Five Essential Vitamins.
They depend on recovery Of the
newly isolated substances, most Of
which have definite commercial
value, to help make the plants
profitable, 1t was explained by DR..
Abraham Leviton, chemist of the
United States Bureau of Dairy In
dustry. After the sugar is extracted
there remain five or six of the vita
Minis essential to life, including K,
which Is necessary for coagulation
of the blood; E, the anti-sterility
vitamin D, which prevents ricketts,
in children, and most of the vitaminS
of the so-called B complex, neces-
sary for nervous stability. When
whey Is Illuminated with blue light
1t shines with lovely green f1uores-
cense which now is known to be
due to the presence of substance
called ribotlavin, or vitamin G.,
which Is at least one of the es-
sential factors in the prevention Of
pellagra Recently there has been
isolated from whey small amounts
of the female sex hormone Oestrin.
In addition there is complex OF
proteins which is essentially SINH
lar to white of egg. Possible uses
now are being sought for this. It
is believed that It may serve most
of the purposes for which egg white
now is used in cooking and candy
making.
DR.. G. c. Supplee, industrial milk
chemist. told the society of expert
ments demonstrating that all the
vitamins necessary for maintenance,
growth, reproduction and complete
fulfllment of the life cycle are con-
tanned in this milk waste. He has
maintained white rats for eight
successive generation on re-
stricted and purified experimental
diet in which the sole source of
most of the vitamins was whey. to
which had been added a minute
amount of rice polishings. The ami
mails got along as we'll as those fed
on the best model diets. AS little as
to 7 per cent of a whey deriva-
tive containing milk minerals and
the concentrated milk vitamins
added to a diet hitherto believed
adequate resulted in making the fe-
male rats much better mothers.