Effect of Histamine,Histidine,and Some Related Compounds on the Zinc-Deficient Chick. ∗

Summary

Histidine at 1.0% and 2.0% of the diet, or histamine at 0.2% of the diet prevented the “arthritic-like” or “perosis-like” syndrome in zinc-deficient chicks fed soy protein diets, while having little or no effect on other symptoms of zinc deficiency. Other histidine metabolites and related compounds such as urocanic acid, β-imidazole acetic acid, imidazole and thiolhistidine had little or no effect on the zinc-deficient chick. A direct histidine-histamine relationship is postulated.

The authors acknowledge the assistance of Wayne M. Becker in writing the programs used in the statistical analysis of these experiments.