Production of hen's eggs rich in vitamin K

A hen's egg is one of the most popular foodstuff in many countries. In this communication production of hen's egg rich in vitamin K is presented. Laying hens fed diet containing vitamin K-1 (10-100 ppm) produced vitamin K rich eggs; their egg yolks contained 104-1,908 mu g/100g-egg yolk of vitamin K-1 (phylloquinone) and 67-192 mu g/100g-egg yolk of vitamin K-2 (menaquinone-4: MK-4). When laying hens were fed a vitamin K-3 (menadione) rich diet (10-1,000 ppm), they produced eggs rich in MK-4 (115-240 mu g/100g-egg yolk). These eggs did not contain detectable level (1 mu g/100g) of menadione and the diet containing high concentration of menadione (100-1,000 ppm) did not affect the egg production during the experimental period of 31 days. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Inc.