Differentiation between Vitamin G and A Soluble Factor Preventing a Pellagra-Like Syndrome in Chicks

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Abstract
Evidence has been presented which shows that dried pork liver contains a factor required to prevent the development of a pellagra-like syndrome in chicks fed a heated casein diet and a factor required for the growth of chicks fed a purified-casein diet. Both of these factors are soluble in an alcohol-water mixture and sensitive to autoclaving at pH 11. The pellagra-preventing factor was destroyed by heating in a dry atmosphere for 144 hours at 100°C. or 50 hours at 120°C. while the growth-promoting factor was relatively stable to this treatment. The pellagra-preventing factor was not adsorbed from liver extract by fuller's earth while the growth-promoting factor was adsorbed. Vitamin G is, therefore, a complex consisting of two components, one of which is pellagra-preventing while the other of which is essentially growth-promoting. The pellagra-preventing factor was found to be present in the cereals only of a cereal, casein diet and not in the casein. Coagulated egg white was shown to contain the pellagra-preventing factor but whether raw egg white also contained this factor could not be determined from the results. Further evidence was obtained which indicated the identity of the pellagra-like syndrome which develops in chicks fed the heated casein diet with that which develops in chicks fed a raw egg-white diet. Two factors were required to prevent the development of this syndrome, since one of these was soluble in an alcohol-water mixture while the other was insoluble. One was also more sensitive to autoclaving at pH 11 than the other but both were destroyed by prolonged heating in a dry atmosphere.