Relationship between the Weight of Chicks and Levels of Dietary Free Gossypol Supplied by Different Cottonseed Products

THE use of cottonseed meals as sources of protein in the diets of growing chickens is increasing, at least partly because they frequently are cheaper than other protein concentrates and recent investigations have led to improvement in their nutritive value. However, because of the toxic properties of gossypol, a component of the pigment glands of cottonseed, the quantity of a cottonseed meal that can be used advantageously in the diet of growing chickens may depend on the quantity of gossypol the meal supplies to the diet. It seems unnecessary in this paper to mention more than a few pertinent references to the literature on the toxicity of gossypol. Withers and Carruth (1915) were apparently the first to report a correlation between a decrease in the amount of gossypol that could be extracted from cottonseed with diethyl ether and an improvement in the nutritive value of the cooked seed. As a …