Further Study on Etiology of Beriberi

Abstract

1. Infants with nutritional disturbance due to rice flour feeding were studied from the viewpoint of etiology of beriberi. As the result it became clear that those infants showing the symptoms of infantile beriberi had taken (i) a great quantity of so-called secondary carbohydrates, (ii) an extremely small quantity of primary carbohydrates i. e. sugars, and (iii) some quantity of vitamin B₁.
2. Coli communior and Coli communis were cultured on protein-free media added with polished rice paste, and bacteria-free filtrate of the culture was found virulent to mice, when the pH of the media was on the alkaline side. Paralysis and heart dilation were observed in the mice injected with such culture filtrate. The effect was proportional to the duration of the culture. Cocci did not produce such poisonous material.
3. Similar cultures obtained without addition of polished rice paste did not produce such poison.
4. This poison was detoxicated by the liver to a certain extent. There were evidences that suggest vitamin B₁ is a powerful detoxicating agent for this poison.
5. A working hypothesis of the authors on the 'nature of beriberi is formulated as follows:
Unbalanced habitual eating of polished rice starch lowers the acidity of the intestinal content which allows proliferation of Con, group. When excessive amount of starch is taken in such individuals, it cannot be hydrolysed away, and the stagnant starch may represent suitable media for Coli communior or Coli communis to prodce a certain poisonous subtance, which, absorbed across the intestinal wall, causes beriberi. Antiberiberic action of vitamin B₁ consists in detoxication.
Briefly, the authors regard the beriberi as a intoxication instead of a deficiency disease.