ITEM No. Jjr 
FILE No. XIV—2 
COPY No. 
RESEARCH IN THE FIELD OF FAT AND 
PROTEINS SUPPLY IN GERMANY 
COMBINED INTELLIGENCE OBJECTIVES 
SUB-COMMITTEE RESEARCH IN THE FIELD 
OF 
FAT AND PROTElNE SUPPLY IN GERMANY 
REPORT BY; 
William J. Croraartle, Gapt.,M.C. 
Carlo Henze, Capt., M.C. 
ALSOS Mission 
CIOS BLACK LIST ITEM 
24-KEDICAL 
COMBINED INTELLIGENCE OBJECTIVES SUB-COMMITTEE 
G-2 DIVISION,SHAEF (REAR), APO 413 TABLE OF CONTENTS 
subject Ease no 
I INTRODUCTION 3 
Tapping of New Pat and Carbohydrate sources 
and Synthesis 3 
Fat Economy by Promoting Fat Synthesis from 
Carbohydrate within the body 5 
Summary 5 
PERSONNEL OF INSPECTION TEAM 
William J. Cromartle, Capt., M.C. 
Carlo Henze, Capt., M.C. ' HEADQUARTERS 
EUROPEAN THEATER OP OPERATIONS 
UNITED STATES ARMY 
ALSOS Mission 
20 January 15^5 
SUBJECT: Research in the Field of Pat and Proteine Supply in Germany. 
(Status as of middle of to end of 19^f) 
The loss of large agricultural areas, such as the Ukraine has 
placed a heavy strain on Germany's food sup lies. Whereas carbohy- 
drates are still available In sufficient quantities, the already ex- 
isting scarcity of fats increased markedly and the needs of proteine 
could not be answered by drawing on the usual sources (meats, fish, 
eggs, etc,). It wa.s of. vital importance, therefore to close or at 
least to reduce the exisiting "fat and protein hiatus" (I'ett-und, 
Eiweisslucke), Research in this direction has been going on in Germany 
for many years and has, in many instances, produced remarkable results. 
The practical aspect of new foods (nutritional value, tolerability) was 
mostly studied in the "Kochvisssnschaftliches Institut der Wehrmacht" 
in Frankfurt a.M. or in corresponding subsidiary laboratories. This 
institute is under the direction of an "Oberstapotheker" (Colonel 
pharmacist) and operates in close connection with the respective agency 
in the OKE under direction of W, Ziegelmayer in Berlin. (The latter 
is a well-known military nutrition expert and research man.) Also in- 
terested in the()problem a.re all industries using fats as raw material 
and the Reichsnahrstand. The main object of these researches consist 
in the search for new natural sources of fats and proteine and of the 
synthesis of fats and proteines. In addition, the problem of saving 
fat by promoting metabolic change of carbohydrate to fat within the 
human body is being studied. 
1. Tapping of new fat and carbohydrate sources and synthesis. 
a. Fats: Natural sources are nov oeing sought more and more in 
the rape-seed, especially after the loss of the huge sunflower fields 
of the Ukraine, The oil recently extracted from rape-seed is consider- 
ably better than that of the War By putting the seed 
through a press at moderate temperature and using new purification and 
filtering methods a satisfactory edible oil is obtained. This oil is 
as yet not equal to the usual edible oils (olive, sesame, peanut). 
Besides rape seed, tomato seed and grape seed is being used for the 
production of oil. Oil derived from the tomato seed is a food of highest quality and is comparable to the best edible oils. The two lat- 
ter oils were first prepared in Italy. Nevertheless, the natural re- 
sources of fats and oils do not suffice by far to meet the demands. 
The rapidly developing synthesis of hydrocarbons and fatty acids in the 
last 10 years (directly from 002 and H2 or by the way of hydrocarbons) 
suggested that the synthesis of fats (through estering fatty acids with 
glycerine) could soon be attempted on a large scale. In practice, 
however, it became apparent that the road from the fatty acid to an ed- 
ible fat is extremely complicated and expensive. This is the main 
reason why direct synthesis has so far not been taken up on a large 
technical scale. Synthetic fat is however encountered in certain in- 
stances (in U-boats because it never gets rancid). Actually Imhausen 
fat synthesis> furnished a high cuality edible fat. Because of the above 
mentioned unsatisfactory aspects of a total fat synthesis from C02 4. 
E2 by ester formation, recourse was taken to biochemical methods. In 
this field fundamental progress was made. The Henkel A.-G-., Damm. and 
other research workers succeeded in growing fat producing fungi 
(yeasts, fusaria) on entirely synthetic media. The source of carbon 
for this syntheis is sugar (also Pentose), With this method, it is 
easy to obtain fats from timber by way of sugar. After aryoroxirnately 
1+8 hours these fungi contain 15°)° of the original sugar supply in. form 
of fat which is suitable for human consumption. In addition approxi- 
mately 15$ proteins is formed. The necessary nitrogen is derived from 
ammonium salts, nitrates, urea, amides, or easily synthesized amino 
acids (see paragraph b.) 
b, Proteine: The meat resources of Germany were reduced markedly 
in I9H2 and 19^3• The sinking of the entire whaling fleet caused the 
disappearance of whale meat as a source of fats and proteine, 
Proteine assumes a special place in human nutrition inasmuch as it 
can be only partly replaced by other substances (fats, carbohydrates). 
The human organism does not possess the capa.city to form proteine. It 
has to be introduced from the outside (in form of animal or vegetable 
proteine). This ’’introduced proteine” is broken down in the intestine 
the components pass through the intestinal mucosa and are resynthetized 
to human proteine. It thus becomes apparent that not any available 
uroteine is suitable for consumption. 
Apart from animal muscle proteine, fish proteine is especially 
suitable as a source of all the required amino ac-xdg for human nutri- 
tion, Detrimental to the use of fish meal so far, was its bad taste 
and odor. In 1937 Metzner and Hiltner succeeded in preparing an en- 
tirely odorless and tasteless dried fish protein without altering its 
main consituants. It is known under the name of German-Pish-Proteine (Deutsches Fischeiweiss). Its chemical conroosition is similar to that 
of the egg-yolk. The proteine resources, however, were still highly in- 
sufficient. Recourse was therefore again taken to biochemical syn- 
thesis. Under paragraph Ha” the possibilities of simultaneous fat and 
proteine synthesis by means of fungi was discussed, Proteine-rich 
yeasts were cultivated. Today, it is possible to grow yeasts (accord- 
ing to Damm) whose fat and proteine content corresponds to about 30$ of 
the original raw material, which consists of sugar (wood sugar) and 
various anorganic nitrogen compounds (see above). 
A ”rungusliverwurstM was prepared from this material, which in 
taste and odor,'.was not unlike that of real liverwu rst. However, ex- 
perimental investigation of this ma.terial in animals and humans over a 
period of several months showed that in the event of an exclusive nu- 
trition with this "fungus-proteine" liver damage occurred. The reason 
was found in the absence of thioaminoacids (particularly cysteine and 
cystine). It has been shown experimentally that in the presence of 
these vital amino acids (pure or in form of animal or fish proteine) 
damage of the liver did not occur. 
In the last two years great effort was also dedicated to the sal- 
vage and usage of proteine rich oil seed residues, (Sunflower and 
rape) for human nutrition, ,At present experimental work with rape seed 
residue is being carried out under the direction of Professor Morell of 
the Unilever-Sunlight Group. The main difficulty is encountered in 
the removal of the partly poisonous bitter and irritant components of 
the rape seed residue, A special method was developed by the informant. 
This method can also be utilized to render cottonseed residues suitable 
for human consumption (removal of the gossypol) and should be of in- 
terest to U, S. sources (detailed information available if desired). 
2. Fat economy by -promoting: fat synthesis from carbohydrate within the 
body. 
Recent research on vitamines, wheat and rye germination has shown 
that vitamins B1 plays an essential role in the formation of fat from 
carbohydrate in intermediate metabolism. It might be possible, there- 
fore, to save fat by administration of vitamin 31 in the presence of a 
carbohydrate-rich diet. The fat would then be formed within the human 
or animal organism itself from carbohydrate. 
Summary: 
A "brief survey is given of the work dons in Germany for the pur- 
pose of compensating the acute fat and proteine shortage. A descrip- 
tion is given of bhe sources of raw material (tomato seed-oil, grape seed oil, fish proteine, oilseed proteins), and of a synthesis (total 
synthesis of fats and ‘biochemical synthesis of fat and proteine hy 
fungi from sugar and nitrogen compounds), Finally the possibilities of 
economizing on fat by taking advantage of the metabolic transformation 
of carbohydrate into fat within the human organism are considered.