Chapter V 



PYRIDOXINE (ADERMIN: VITAMIN Be] 



I. fflSTORICAL 



In the previous chapter, mention was made of the observation of 

 J. Goldberger and R. D. Lillie ^ that a pellagra-like dermatitis was 

 produced in rats fed a vitamin Bg-deficient diet (page 211). For a 

 time it was believed that this dermatitis was analogous to human 

 pellagra and that the condition could be used as a test for the " PP- 

 factor ". In 1935, however, Birch et al^ showed that this dermatitis, 

 which they preferred to call rat acrodynia, was cured, not by the 

 PP-factor, but by another component of the vitamin Bg group, 

 previously designated vitamin Bg by P. Gyorgy,^ who defined it as 

 " that part of the vitamin B complex which is responsible for the 

 cure of a specific dermatitis developed by young rats on the vitamin- 

 free diet supplemented with vitamin B^ and lactoflavin ". On the 

 other hand, a highly active pellagra-preventive concentrate was 

 found to possess little or no vitamin Bg activity. Thus, for the first 

 time, a clear distinction was recognised between riboflavine, the 

 PP-factor and vitamin Bg. 



At about the same time, C. A. Elvehjem and C. J. Koehn ^ were 

 making observations on a form of dermatitis produced in chicks on a 

 vitamin Bg deficient diet, and they prepared a concentrate of the 

 responsible substance from a commercial liver extract (Eli Lilly's). 

 This concentrate, although highly effective in chick dermatitis, was 

 inactive in rat dermatitis, and the fractions that had been discarded 

 in the course of its preparation were therefore tested on rats. One 

 of them, presumably containing Gyorgy's vitamin Bg, was found to 

 be very active. The chick dermatitis factor was also investigated by 

 S. Lepkovsky and T. H. Jukes,^ who found that, unlike the factor 

 that cured rat dermatitis, it was not adsorbed on fuller's earth from 

 aqueous solutions. The rat factor they called factor i and the chick 

 factor, factor 2. They found that both factors were essential for 

 puppies, and that a microcytic hypochromic anaemia developed in 

 the absence of factor i. 



The first step toward the isolation of the new factor was taken 

 by T. W. Birch and P. Gyorgy,^ who found that vitamin Bg was 

 present as an insoluble complex in fresh fish muscle and in wheat 



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