Tropical macrocytic anemia

The antiscurvy (antiscorbutic) activity was called vitamin C, and when its structure became known it was called ascorbic acid. The fat-soluble factor preventing rickets was designated vitamin D. By 1922, it was recognized that another fat-soluble factor, vitamin E, is essential for full-term pregnancy in the rat. In the early 1930s vitamin K and the essential fatty acids were added to the list of fat-soluble vitamins. Study of the human blood disorders "tropical macrocytic anemia" and "pernicious anemia" led to recognition of two more water-soluble vitamins, folic acid and vitamin B12. The latter is required in minute amounts and was not isolated until 1948. Have all the vitamins been discovered Rats can be reared on an almost completely synthetic diet. However, there is the possibility that for good health humans require some as yet undiscovered compounds in our diet. Furthermore, it is quite likely that we receive some essential nutrients that we cannot synthesize from bacteria in our intestinal tracts. An example may be the pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ).e... 

In 1931, Lucy Wills, working in India, observed that patients with tropical macrocytic anemia, a... 

F NMR spectrum of 270 H NMR spectrum of 268 wobble position 231 Tropical macrocytic anemia 802 Tropoelastin 436 Tropomodulin 406 Tropomyosin 370,406... 

Lucy Wills (1931, 1948) reported that patients in India suffering from tropical macrocytic anemias responded to a yeast extract (Marmite) but not to refined liver extracts. 

Spies, T. D., Lopez, G. G., Milanes, F., Toca, R. L., Reboredo, A., and Stone, R. E., The response of patients with pernicious anemia, with nutritional macrocytic anemia and with tropical sprue to folinic acid or citrovorum factor. Southern Med. J. 43, 1076-1082 (1950). 

Folic acid deficient humans develop a macrocytic hyperchromic anemia similar to that observed in vitamin Bi2 deficiency. Observations made on the undernourished population of Bombay prompted the discovery of the vitamin. In 1932, Will observed that macrocytic anemia occurred frequently among the people of Bombay and that the disease was readily cured by the addition of yeast to the diet. Folic acid deficiency also seems to be responsible for the macrocytic anemia that develops in cases of tropical sprue. 

---