(1) Antineuritic Or Antiberiberi Factor ("Water-Soluble B" Growth Factor Of The Americans)

This vitamine prevents the occurrence of beriberi in man and analogous diseases in animals. It is also necessary to promote satisfactory growth in young animals. It is widespread, and is found to some extent in almost all natural foodstuffs. Its principal sources are the seeds of plants and the eggs of animals, where it is deposited, apparently, as a reserve for the nutrition of the young offspring. Highly cellular organs such as the liver and the brain contain considerable amounts of this vitamine; flesh contains comparatively little. Yeast cells are a rich source, so also are yeast extracts, e.g., "marmite." In the case of peas, beans, and other pulses, this vitamine is distributed throughout the seed, but with cereals it is concentrated in the germ (embryo) and in the peripheral layer of the seed which in milling is peeled off with the pericarp and forms the bran.

Beriberi is occasioned by a diet composed too exclusively of cereals from which germ and bran have been removed by milling, as in the case of polished rice or white wheat flour. The disease is common where polished rice is the staple article of diet to the almost entire exclusion of other foodstuffs. It is rare, though not unknown, where white wheat bread is eaten, because the consumption of this type of cereal food is usually accompanied by a sufficiency of other foodstuffs containing the essential principle. It is unknown where rye bread is the staple food, because in the milling of rye there is no separation of the germ.

(2) The Fat-Soluble A Growth Factor Or Antirachitic Factor, Necessary To Promote Growth And Prevent Rickets In Young Animals

This vitamine appears to be necessary also to maintain health in adults, and it has been suggested that war edema may be due to a lack of this factor in the diet.

The main sources of this factor are two in number:

(1) certain fats of animal origin,

(2) green leaves.

The most notable deposits of this factor are in cream, butter, beef fat, fish oils (for example, cod-liver oil, whale oil), egg yolk. It is present in very small or negligible amount in lard (pig fat) and in vegetable oils, as, for example, linseed oil, olive oil, cottonseed oil, coconut oil, palm oil; peanut or arachis oil is reported to contain it in larger amount. It will be noticed that this factor is found chiefly in the more expensive fats.

While green-leaf vegetables contain the fat-soluble factor, root vegetables are deficient in it; war edema has been frequently reported under circumstances in which root vegetables have formed a large proportion of the diet.

(3) Antiscorbutic Factor. This vitamine is necessary in a diet for the prevention of scurvy, and is found in fresh vegetable tissues and (to a much less extent) in fresh animal tissues. Its richest sources are such vegetables as cabbage, swedes, turnips, lettuce, watercress, and such fruits as lemons, oranges, raspberries, tomatoes. Inferior in value are potatoes, carrots, French beans, scarlet runners, beetroot, mangolds, and also (contrary to popular belief) lime juice. Potatoes, although classed among the less valuable vegetables as regards antiscorbutic value, are probably responsible for the prevention of scurvy in northern countries during the winter, owing to the large quantities which are regularly consumed.

Milk and meat possess a definite but low antiscorbutic value.

This vitamine suffers destruction when the fresh foodstuffs containing it are subjected to heat, drying, or other methods of preservation.

All dry foodstuffs are deficient in antiscorbutic properties - such are cereals, pulses, dried vegetables, and dried milk.

Tinned vegetables and tinned meat are also deficient in antiscorbutic principle. In case of tinned fruits the acidity of the fruit increases the stability of the vitamine, and prevents, to some extent, the destruction which would otherwise occur during the sterilization by heat and the subsequent storage.