VITAMIN RIDDLE SOLVED

Evening Star, Issue 19550, 7 May 1927, Page 13

VITAMIN RIDDLE SOLVED

ANTI-RACHITIC SUBSTANCE OBTAINED ENGLISH WORKEBS’ SUCCESS The mystery of the so-called vitamin which prevents rickets, and the action of "which is similar to that of ultraviolet light, is practically solved (writes a scientific correspondent of the ‘Observer’). The success in unravelling this problem, on which workers all over the world hare during the past few' years been concentrating their attention, falls to two Englishmen— o. Kosenheim and T. A. Webster, of the National Institute for Medical Research at Hampstead.

It has been known for two years that when animals suffering from rickets are given food whiph has been irradiated with ultra-violet light : the rickets can be cured. At the same time, certain foodstuffs, such as cod liver' oil, already contain a substance which has the same properties us irradiated food in curing or preventing rickets. It was found by careful research that the ingredient m food which had the curative property after irradiation was a wax-like substance called cholesterol. But it was then discovered that cholesterol, when treated in certain ways, though apparently.chemically unaltered, would not cure rickets, even if it'was irradiated _ for longer or shorter periods. This conclusion- led to a further problem, which, briefly, consisted in finding something else contained in ordinary cholesterol which became activated by irradiation. A series of compounds were finally found, and one of these, ergosterol, Roscnheim found to have the properties of preventing rickets alter irradiation.

HALF-OUNCE FOR A LIFETIME 'OF HEALTH.

A preparation of ergosterol, which is over 1,000 times more, active in dealing with rickets than any preparation hitherto obtained, has now been made by Rosenheim. This is apparently the pure vitamin I), as it has hitherto been called. A rat needs about onethousandth of a milligram of this per day to keep it in health. Tbo amount a human being would require from birth to death would bo something under one-half an ounce!

The immediate' applications of this discovery are two-fold'. In the realm of ’Hire biochemistry. a big programme of research can now he undertaken in order to lay bare the chemical processes with which these substances are concerned. As far as practical application goes, the isolation of pure vitamin D will have far-reaching effects. A preparation that will act as an efficient substitute for cod liver oil will probably be available soon at a. considerably lower price. It will also be interestting to see if such a preparation will sunpress or supersede the ultra-violet light treatment, which in the nast few years has been increasingly used in certain diseases, and which is not only expensive, but must bo administered with the greatest caution bv trained experts. Ergostero! can bo prepared from the fat of various plants, including veast. THE CAUSE OF EERI-EERI.

In addition to the solving of the mystery of vitamin D. tho, attack on tlie vitamin winch cures herl-heri, or polyneuritis, has led to tho announcement by two Dutch workers that they have isolated this substance. Working at the Dutch colonial laboratories at Weltevrede.n, Batavia, Messrs B. C. P. Jansen and W. F. Donnth have apparently made considerable progress, and have obtained it in a preparation a thousand-times'more pure than any formerly known Tho amounts needed for health appear ,to be similar in quantity to the necessary amounts of vitamin D, as stated by Rosenheim. Whether tho Dutch investigators have completely succeeded in the actual isolation is a. matter which still leaves room for scientific discussion.