VITAMIN EXPERIMENTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 115, 17 May 1934, Page 6

VITAMIN EXPERIMENTS.

Several grams of Vitamin 81, one of the rarest and most elusivo of biochemical substances, have been extracted in the last few months from rice bran by by a new process devised by Robert R. Williams, head of the chemical research department of the Bell Telephone Laboratories in New York. Vitamin Bl has been obtained in pure, or nearly pure form before, but in such minute quantities that biological experiments were Impossible. Mr. Williams has been able to produce it in "quantity"; a total of nearly a tablespoonful to date. This achievement became known recently when R. E. Waterman and Miss Marion Ammerman, associates of Dr. Williams, reported before the American Federation of Biological Societies that they were feeding controlled diets containing quantities of Vitamin Bl to rats, the chief result so far being to increase the growth of the animals. Lack of Vitamin Bl causes the disease beri-beri, common anions Oriental peoples who live on polished rice. The curious thing about this is that the brail, which they throw away, is probably the richest source of the vitamin. Dr. Williams says there are about twenty parts of the vitamin in 1,000,000 of the bran. Tile amount included in the diet of the average man is about one part in a million; probably not enough. In pure form the vitamin is a white crystalline substance. Twenty or thirty different chemical processes are necessary to extract it, and the cost is about 1000 dollars a gram — too high to permit much experimentation, but the cost perhaps can be reduced later. Rice bran, .while the richest, is not the only source of the vitamin. It is found in'yeast, especially brewer's yeast, and in all the common grains. It is found in fair qyantity in lean pork, but not in lean beef. It, is also contained in ripe beans, such as navy beans, but not in green beans. Its biological effects, so far as now known, are to stimulate the appetite, increase the consumption of food, and accelerate the metabolism.