VITAMIN B

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 110, 11 May 1935, Page 28

VITAMIN B

ITS ATOMIC STRUCTURE

AMERICAN CHEMIST'S CLAIM

The discovery of the atomic structure of Vitamin B, an epoch-making step towards the preservation of health, is announced from Columbia University, states the New York correspondent of the London "Morning Post."

Vitamin B is a nerve vitamin without which nerves "go to pieces." Its discovery has given hope for more effective treatment of nerve disorders, and it also promises to improve the approach to some mysteries of insanity in view of the fact that it is already used experimentally as a remedy for dementia praecox. ■>

The importance of the Columbia University's discovery lies in the fact that vitamin B may soon be synthesised in a pure form. Until this discovery it has.been available only in foodstuffs, such as tomatoes, liver, and others from which its ■ extraction is difficult, and it has not been obtained in an entirely pure form.

The formula has been discovered by Robert R. Williams, of Columbia, and is described in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Mr. Williams learned the secret of the structure of the carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen,<»and .sulphur composing the vitamin B molecule by extracting a comparatively-large quantity from rice polishings—one ton of these polishings producing fj*e> grammes of the pure vitamin.

Mr. Williams is.the first chemist.to isolate the pure crystals in quantities sufficient for study. Previously only a cbncentfate containing impurities was available. .

According to Mr; Williams, the vitamin; is structurally composed of two nuclei, one nucleus being pyrimidine, which is. found in ■ many substances and Occurring in- the> body, and the other, being thiazole, which has never been. found jn the human body, althbugh wit is-khbwn to be in artificial substances. . t

"The facts justify considering the vitamin 'as a quaternary base," says Mr. Williams. "Such a formula best explains 'the chemical properties of the vitamin; notably the action of an alkali and a' sulphite as. well as certain physical characteristics ■ such as the solu-bility-of the base and its hydroclilonde. "Studies-.are..inTprogress to confirm the proposed.'structure and to ascertain to what extent sulphite, cleavage is a general reaction of quaternaryammonium bases." •

Mr. Williams's vitamin. B molecule has the appearance of a "trailing aeroplane target after severe, punishing with guns."