Nomenclature of Vitamin B₂

Abstract

PERHAPS it is useful to direct attention to the above subject before confusion gets worse confounded. It was pointed out in 1931 that the use of the terms vitamin B₂ and anti-dermatitis (anti-pellagra?) factor interchangeably was already causing difficulties¹. The discovery by Kuhn and his co-workers that lactofiavine is able to supplement a vitamin B₂-deficient diet for the growth of rats constitutes a great advance, but the anti-dermatitis factor (the so-called Haut-faktor of the Heidelberg workers) does not appear to be identical with it. Again, we have observed² that concentrates of renoflavine (obtained from ox-kidney extracts) have their growth-promoting effect considerably enhanced by the addition of a relatively heat and alkali-stable substance present in ox-kidney extracts, which is not so well adsorbed by fuller's earth in acid solution as the flavine. The tests were carried out with vitamin B-deficient rats receiving vitamins B₁ and B₂.