On the occurrence of free glucose in the caecal contents of rats.

Free glucose was assayed in the caecal contents of rats. Whereas control animals had less than 60 nmol glucose per g of caecal contents, 230 nmol glucose/g caecal contents were determined 3 hours after the administration of 300 mg Palatinit by gastric intubation. In contrast to an earlier report (8), caecal fluid thus contained less than 3% of the glucose concentration of 11 mumol/ml claimed to occur after Palatinit administration by these authors (8). Since the anaerobic fermentation capacity for glucose by the caecal contents of rats amounted to at least 630 nmol glucose/min X g fresh weight at 37 degrees C, only the low glucose concentrations reported above are plausible.