Nicotinic Acid 189
riboflavine is quite general.
The principal visible symptom of lack of riboflavine in
human beings is the development of lesions of the lips and
mouth. Very characteristic are red, macerated transverse
streaks at the corners of the mouth. This condition has
been experimentally produced by diets lacking in riboflavine,
and rapidly cured by its administration. Mouths showing
these lesions are common in many parts of the tropics,
especially in India, and are frequently seen in rural areas of
our southern states where pellagra is also common, and
where grits, biscuits, and a little home-cured pork are the
principal items on the menu, to the exclusion of milk, cheese,
eggs, fresh meat, or fresh vegetables. Five milligrams of
riboflavine a day for three days was found to heal the mouths
almost magically. Prior to an exact determination of what
was lacking, children in India were cured by addition of
skimmed milk or yeast to their diet of parboiled rice.
Riboflavine is widely distributed in plants, but grains and
seeds are less richly endowed with it than with thiamin.
Leaves and stems contain small amounts, especially the
tops of beets, mustard, turnips, and carrots (for once
spinach falls a little behind). Apricots and tomatoes are
good sources, and also beef, veal, and chicken, but not fish
or pork. Brewer’s yeast is the richest vegetable source. Of
ordinary human foods, milk, eggs, and liver are undoubtedly
the best sources of riboflavine. Volume for volume, skimmed
milk is richer in riboflavine than is cream, but since the lat-
ter contains nearly all the vitamin A, whole milk is usually
preferable.
NICOTINIC ACID AND PELLAGRA
Pellagra, mal-de-rosa, or “sunburn of spring” as the
Italians euphemistically call it, is a disease almost universally