Vitamin B6 in Internal Medicine

Introduction Vitamin B₆is required as a growth factor by a wide variety of bacteria, yeasts, and molds and for the nutrition of all species of animals studied. In man it is an essential nutrient, and deficiency of vitamin B₆results in characteristic alterations of the skin, mucous membranes, and nervous system. Like other vitamins, vitamin B₆functions as a coenzyme of importance in a wide variety of enzyme systems concerned with intermediary metabolism. Vitamin B₆is now used as a class name to include all compounds having vitamin B₆activity. These include pyridoxine, pyridoxal, and pyridoxamine. To Gyorgy¹(1934) goes the credit for establishing vitamin B₆as an entity in the vitamin B complex. Within two years of the original observations of Gyorgy, five independent reports announced the isolation of pyridoxine from various natural materials.²⁻⁶In 1939, Harris and Folkers⁷successfully synthesized pyridoxine. Snell⁸recognized the existence of other