Show finds new bacteria rivals carrots in vitamin A an important diet factor certain bacteria have been found to produce more carotene a valuable substance containing vitamin A than ca carrots r it was revealed at a meeting of the society of american fists A paper written by SI M A ingraham Ingra haro and 0 A baumann of the university of wisconsin disclosed the fact that nearly twice as much carotene has been obtained from the bacteria in proportion to their size as Is found in carrots the paper also said that persons for whom physicians now prescribe a diet of carrots may some day be able to take medicine in a condensed form carotene is found in the yellow pigment which gives the carrot its color an AD experiment was cited in which the bacteria were fed to animals whose diet was lacking vitamin A these animals appeared to be able to convert some of the bacterial carotene into the missing vitamin but no evidence was ever found that the germs themselves changed their own carotene into vitamin A the discovery marks another link between animal and vegetable kingdoms for carotene p production rod u ebion has a al ways been a associated with the presence of chlorophyll the green pigment of all plants ile he described it as being one of the peculiar cases in which a small organism Is partly animal and partly vegetable it Is of interest to observe he explained pla ined that although bacteria resembles animals in their lack of chlorophyll they resemble plants in their ability to synthesize carotene |