Vitamin A and Australian Fish Liver Oils

Abstract

Research by an organic chemist at the University of Melbourne and support from Australia's Council for Scientific and Industrial Research provided the basis for a wartime industry when Australia was unable to maintain access to traditional supplies of cod liver oil from Britain and Norway in the 1940s. Two major pharmaceutical companies gathered oil from the livers of sharks in southern Australia that was rich in vitamin A, and so met domestic and military needs for this nutritional supplement. Other companies joined in and by the end of the war Australia had a flourishing industry that derived synergy from the marketing of shark flesh for human consumption. South Africa was a leader among countries that expanded fish-oil production in the late 1940s, as a result of which Australian producers suffered from import competition. A Tariff Board hearing found that the Australian industry was unable to meet local needs and so did not recommend increased tariffs. The industry struggled for years until the perceived nutritional benefits of other components of the fish oils helped to revive markets.