American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol 5, 440-444, Copyright © 1957 by The American Society for Clinical Nutrition, Inc.

Goitrogenic Substances in Food

¹ From the Department of Medicine, University of Oregon Medical School, Portland

The more recent literature on the production of goiter by various foodstuffs is briefly reviewed. Rutabaga and turnip are the only edible plants from which an active goitrogen has so far been isolated. The active antithyroid agent in these vegetables has been identified as goitrin. It is present in the plant, and in the seeds of most Brassicae, as progoitrin, an inactive compound. Goitrin is apparently liberated from progoitrin only through specific enzymatic hydrolysis by a thioglycosidase contained in the plant or seed itself. Cooking destroys this enzyme and thus negates its goitrogenic potency by preventing the liberation of goitrin from progoitrin. Although the ingestion of considerable quantities of goitrogenic foods may contribute to the development of goiter under certain circumstances, it is very difficult to incriminate them as an etiologic factor in the vast majority of goitrous patients.