The water-soluble B-vitamins

Abstract

Note. Vitamin B2 may be defined as the heat-stable constituent of the vitamin B complex which must be added to diets containing all other dietary essentials, including the antineuritic vitamin B1, in order to maintain growth and health in the rat and prevent occurrence of dermatitis ("rat pellagra"). THE recent isolation of lyochromes, water-soluble pigments with characteristic yellow green fluorescence, by Ellinger and Koschara [1933] and by Kuhn et at. [1933, 1, 2, 3] and the discovery that these pigments are present in materials possessing the biological attributes of vitamin B2 have given a new impetus to the study of this vitamin. A series of such pigments, having certain well-defined physical and chemical properties in common, has been isolated in pure form from many substances rich in vitamin B2, viz, whey, egg-white, yeast, liver, kidney