ABSTRACT
Pellagra (which is now recognized as the set of symptoms related to niacin defi-ciency) was first reported as “Mal de la Rosa” by Casal in 1735. The term “pellagra” consisting of a synthesis of the Italian word from pelle (skin) and agra (rough) was introduced by Frapolli in 1771. This disorder persisted in south-ern Europe and the southern United States until the early 1900s. The occurrence of pellagra was associated with corn consumption, although pellagra was initially believed to be an infectious disease. Goldberger (1) showed in 1916 that pellagra could not be transmitted to healthy people, and it was postulated that the disease was attributable to a deficiency of a nutrient, the socalled pellagra-preventing factor. In 1937 Elvehjem et al. (2) showed that nicotinic acid cured the black tongue of dogs (similar symptom of human pellagra) and isolated nicotinamide as a pellagra preventing factor from liver. In 1938, Spies et al. (3) showed that administration of nicotinic acid would cure pellagra, and it was gradually ac-cepted that pellagra was caused by a nicotinic acid or nicotinamide deficiency. The pellagragenic effect of corn is now considered to be due to nicotinic acid in a form not released by digestion. It is bound with glucose, imbedded in a glycopeptide (4). Alkali, or even ammonia vapor, will release the vitamin in a form useful to man and animals (4). The fact that Central American diets do not cause pellagra, in spite of a very high corn content, has been attributed to cooking the corn in lime as part of tortilla preparation.
