Water-soluble B-vitamins

Abstract

IN this laboratory it has long been recognized that although rats could be reared satisfactorily for some weeks on a diet containing, as sources of the B-vitamins, vitamin B1 and lactoflavin supplemented by the filtrate from autoclaved yeast extract after treatment with fuller's earth, this diet was not complete, since better growth and development resulted when the animals received autoclaved aqueous extracts of yeast which had not been subjected to further fractionation. The results of experiments carried out by Copping in this laboratory [1936] showed that the dermatitis, developed in rats receiving lactoflavin only of the vitamin B2 group, was more effectively cured by alcoholic extracts of cereals than by the yeast fuller's earth filtrate. This indicated that at least one additional factor, not contained in the yeast filtrate, was present in alcoholic cereal extracts.