Vitamins in Relation to the Prevention and Treatment of Pellagra

The exact number of vitamins or dietary factors in the so-called water soluble vitamin B complex that are essential to the human organism is still undetermined. There are four postulated factors about which sufficient evidence exists to warrant discussion in connection with the treatment and prevention of pellagra. These are riboflavin, or vitamin B₂(G), the rat antidermatitis factor or vitamin B₆, the filtrate factor or chick pellagra factor, and the pellagra-preventive vitamin or blacktongue-preventive factor. It is not impossible that two of these may be different names for the same substance. The field is being investigated so actively at the present time that it is almost impossible to make any conclusive statement concerning the identity of factors which have not been chemically isolated. RIBOFLAVIN OR VITAMIN B2(G) There is considerable evidence that riboflavin is not the pellagra-preventive vitamin. Rhoads and Miller¹reported that they