The Philippine Journal of Science 
1921 
Regarding the antineuritic bodies existing in rice polishings, 
Vedder and Williams 9 give the following conclusions: 
(1) Undermilled rice may be stored for one year in a damp place without 
losing its protective powers against polyneuritis gallinarum. It is improb- 
able, therefore, that a rice which originally affords protection against beri- 
beri will lose this property by storage even in damp places. 
(2) The neuritis-preventing substances or vitamines contained in rice 
polishings are only slightly soluble in cold 95 per cent alcohol, since three 
successive extractions, using a total of six liters of alcohol to each kilo 
of polishings, fail to remove all of the neuritis-preventing substances from 
rice polishings. 
(3) Strong alkaline reagents such as sodium hydroxide, ammonia and 
barium hydroxide, destroy the neuritis-preventing vitamine, and the use of 
these reagents must be avoided in endeavoring to isolate this substance. 
(4) Basic lead acetate does not precipitate the neuritis-preventing vita- 
mine, and a considerable portion of this substance may be recovered from 
the filtrate. 
(5) The therapeutic properties of an alcoholic extract of rice polishings 
are greatly altered by hydrolysis (treatment with five per cent hydro- 
chloric or sulphuric acid). The unhydrolyzed extract is not poisonous, and 
is only slowly curative. The hydrolyzed extract is exceedingly poisonous 
in large doses and promptly curative in small do^es. 
(6) We have confirmed Funk’s observations by isolating a crystalline 
base from an extract of rice polishings by Funk’s method. This base in 
doses of 30 milligrams promptly cured fowls suffering from polyneuritis 
gallinarum. 
(7) Funk’s base or vitamine is present in rice polishings in considerable 
amounts, and only a very small portion of it can be obtained by Funk’s 
method. 
(8) Two groups of substances (purine bases, choline like bases) may be 
isolated from rice polishings in addition to Funk’s base, and are capable 
of partly or wholly protecting fowls fed on polished rice against polyneuritis 
gallinarum, but are incapable of curing fowls that have already developed 
the disease. The chemical nature of these two groups of bases requires 
further investigation. 
(9) We have confirmed the observation of Suzuki, Shimamura and 
Odake, that Funk’s base may be precipitated from unhydrolyzed extract 
by tannic acid, but did not succeed in obtaining large amounts of this sub- 
stance by this method. 
(10) It is probable that this base or vitamine exists in food as a pyri- 
midine base combined as a constituent of nucleic acid, but that it is not 
present in the nucleins or nucleic acids that have been isolated by processes 
involving the use of alkalies, or heat. 
(11) The administration of unhydrolyzed extract of rice polishings to 
cases of adult wet beriberi, or to cases suffering from acute cardiac insuf- 
ficiency, results in the prompt dissipation of oedema, and relief of the 
cardiac symptoms. 
(12) The administration of unhydrolyzed extract of rice polishings to 
0 Vedder, Edward B., Beriberi. New York, William Wood & Co. (1913) 
403, 404. 
