ANEURINE (thiamine) 



He concluded that the requirements for man would be proportionately 

 lower. Young rats required twice as much aneurine for growth when 

 maintained at 90° F. as they required at 68° F.^ 



The first calculations made for the human requirements of vitamin 

 Bi were based on an examination of diets known to have been associ- 

 ated with epidemics of beriberi and of diets known to be associated 

 with the absence of beriberi. G. R. Cowgill ^ set out the available 

 data in detail and summarised the results in a graph relating body- 

 weight to the vitamin : calorie ratio. It can be deduced from this 

 that a 60-kg. man consuming 2500 cals. per day would require not 

 less than 210 I.U. of vitamin B^ per day. A. Z. Baker and M. D. 

 Wright * and A. G. van Veen ^ arrived at values of 200 to 500 and 150 

 I.U. per day respectively as the minimum intake to prevent beriberi 

 in man ; these are equivalent to 07 to 17 and 0-5 mg. per day. 



The difference between these estimates may be due to the smaller 

 average weight of Indonesians, on whom van Veen made his observa- 

 tions, compared with Europeans. Stepp et al.^ gave the requirements 

 as 0-25 to 075 mg. per day, whilst Vorhaus et aU estimated that the 

 normal American adult requires about i mg. of pure aneurine daily, 

 although they did not imply that this was the minimum necessary for 

 health. 



More recent results have been based on controlled experiments 

 with human volunteers, or on saturation tests with individuals on 

 different diets, or on nutritional surveys of particular sections of the 

 population. An example of investigations of the first type is provided 

 by the work of Elsom et al.^ They maintained six volunteers on a 

 diet containing just enough aneurine to satisfy the " theoretical " 

 requirements and three others on a diet containing half this amoimt. 

 Three of those on the higher level developed typical signs of aneurine 



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