ANEURINE (thiamine) 



Complex Nature of Vitamin B 



That vitamin B was not a single substance was first shown in 1920 

 by A. D. Emmett and G. O. Luros,* who found that the growth- 

 promoting water-soluble vitamin B and the antineuritic vitamin B 

 were not equally susceptible to heat, the latter being more labile than 

 the former. Six years later, Goldberger et al.^ stated that " investiga- 

 tors using the rat-growth test must hereafter recognise — and take 

 due account of at least two essentials " — the antineuritic vitamin B 

 and the pellagra-preventive factor. In the following year the British 

 Accessory Food Factors Committee recommended the adoption of 

 vitamin Bj and vitamin B2 as the names of these two factors, whilst 

 the American Society of Biological Chemists, on the other hand, 

 adopted a different nomenclature, reserving the name vitamin B for 

 the antineuritic factor and assigning the name vitamin G to the anti- 

 pellagra factor. When other water-soluble factors came to be isolated 

 from liver and yeast, however, the British system was found more 

 flexible as it could be extended to cover these new factors, which were 

 designated vitamin Bg, vitamin B4, etc. The name aneurin was 

 proposed in 1935 by B. C. P. Jansen,® who first isolated the vitamin in 

 the pure state. Though generally accepted in Europe this name was 

 rejected in the U.S.A. on the ground of " therapeutic implication " 

 and the name thiamine was adopted instead. Aneurine is now 

 accepted as the official name in the British Pharmacopoeia, the 

 addition of the " e " being an interesting reversal of the change from 

 " vitamine " to " vitamin ". 



References to Section 1 



1. C. Funk, /. Physiol., 191 1, 43, 395. 



2. C. Funk, /. State Med., 191 2, 20, 341. 



3. J. C. Drummond, Biochem. J., 1920, 14, 660. 



4. A. D. Emmett and G. O. Lures, /. Biol. Chem., 1920, 43, 265. 



5. J. Goldberger. G. A. Wheeler, R. D. Lillie and L. M. Rogers, U.S. 



Publ. Health Rep., 1926, 41, 297. 



6. B. C. P. Jansen, Nature, 1935, 135, 267. 



2. ISOLATION OF ANEURINE 



The first attempt to concentrate the antineuritic factor was made 

 in 1 912 by Suzuki et al.^ who used an aqueous extract of rice poHshings 

 as the raw material ; they tested their concentrates, which they termed 

 " oryzanin ", on pigeons maintained on a vitamin B-free diet, noting 

 the amount required to prevent the head retraction (opisthotonus) 

 characteristic of these birds in the polyneuritic condition. In the 



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