EFFECT OF THE DIETARY FREE GOSSYPOL SOURCE ON THE DEPOSITION OF GOSSYPOL RESIDUES IN LIVER AND MUSCLE-TISSUE OF CHICKENS

Broiler diets supplemented with cottonseed meal or ground cottonseed s uch as to contain 100 ppm and 200 ppm or 200 ppm of ''free'' gossypol, respectively, were fed to 9-week old Hubbard chickens for two weeks. Symptoms of gossypol toxicity were not developed in any of the treated birds compared to controls. Tissue analysis showed that gossypol accu mulated in liver but not in muscles. The levels of the accumulated gos sypol, being higher in the case of cottonseed feeding, were better rel ated to the dietary gossypol as it was measured by liquid chromatograp hy rather than be the EEC spectrophotometric method for ''free'' gossy pol determination.