Vitamin News

The first vitamin, discovered in 1914, was something of a mystery, and hence was given the algebraic name of A. Other vitamins followed in rapid succession: six Bs, one C, eight Ds, one E, three Hs, one K. There is even talk of a vitamin P, and scientists have been so busy tracking down the unknown properties of vitamins that they have had no time to agree on more significant, logical names. Certain it is that vitamin discovery and, more recently, the artificial production of vitamins have opened an entirely new field of therapy. Latest news from the vitamin field:

Vitamin E. In 1922, Physiologist Herbert McLean Evans of the University of California discovered that lack of a certain principle of wheat germ, tomato and lettuce oils made laboratory rats sterile. In 1935 he isolated Vitamin E, the active principle of these oils, reduced it to its pure, crystalline form. Vitamin E regulates cell division, increases the number and strength of the offspring, promotes growth. Lack of this vitamin results in malnutrition of the embryo and abortion in the female, destruction of germ cells in the male, muscular paralysis in the young. Isolation of Vitamin E (alpha tocopherol) from natural oils is difficult and expensive, but last winter Chemist Paul Karrer of Switzerland synthesized it from coal tar. Dr. Evans promptly fed alpha tocopherol to sterile rats, and this week he told the International Physiological Congress at Zurich, Switzerland, that all 200 of the rats gave birth to average-sized litters. Synthetic Vitamin E is just as strong as the natural product, does not seem to keep so long, has not yet been tried on humans. How it works, no one knows. One thing is certain: Vitamin E does not stimulate the sex glands.

Viiamin C. Most convenient sources of this anti-scurvy vitamin are oranges and lemons. In 1932 it was produced artificially by Chemist Tadeus Reichstein of Zurich, is now available to physicians in cheap form. Last week Modern Medicine announced that University of Chicago's Dr. Siegfried Maurer and associates* had given "restful and apparently normal sleep" to 60 healthy but insomniac patients by feeding them one to three grams of ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) daily. One group, which was insane, required a larger dose. As soon as the patients achieved a normal sleep, vitamin treatment was discontinued.

*Biochemist Harold Oliver Wiles of Chicago's Sprague Memorial Institute, M. L. Fisher of the Manteno, Ill. State Hospital and E. W. Schoeffel.

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