Occurrence of fits of an epileptiform nature in rats maintained for long periods on a diet deprived of vitamin B6

Abstract

ABOUT 2 years ago Chick et al. [1938, 2] reported the occurrence of nervous 'symptoms in young pigs reared on a synthetic diet and deprived of certain members of the vitamin B2 complex. The basal diet consisted of purified casein, purified maize starch, cotton seed oil, salt mixture, cod liver oil, with daily supplements of pure vitamin Bl, nicotinic acid and riboflavin. When daily doses of Edgar & Macrae's yeast eluate fraction which contains vitamin B6 and of their purified yeast filtrate fraction were also given, the pigs developed satisfactorily, though not as well as a control group which received 4 % of yeast in their diet as source of all the B-vitamins. When the filtrate factor was omitted the pigs did badly, became paralysed and died if the missing factor was not given. When the eluate factor was omitted the pigs also showed a subnormal rate of growth and in addition developed a tendency to epileptic fits. The following is the description given.