Anemia in Chicks Caused by a Vitamin Deficiency

Short story of antirheumatic therapy.VIII. The immunodepressants

“…It was, however, only identified by Herschel K. Mitchell, Esmond E. Snell and Roger J. Williams (33) in 1941. In the years immediately before, other factors had already been identified, such as folic acid: an active principle present in yeast and the liver needed for the growth of Streptococcus faecalis, isolated by Albert G. Hogan and Ernest E. Parrot in 1939 (34); LC factor, a growth factor for Lactobacillus casei, isolated in the liver and reported by Snell and by William Harold Peterson in 1940 (35); vitamin M, which can cure anemia in monkeys with pellagra, described by the team of Paul L. Day, again in 1940 (36). In 1945, Robert B. Angier, together with a series of collaborators (37), completed the synthesis of folic acid and, in the same year, the team of Tom Douglas Spies (38) used it in the treatment of pernicious anemia and of other megablastic anemias.…”

The Chemistry of the Pteridines.

“…without which monkeys develop a fatal blood disorder characterized by leucopenia and sometimes anemia (53), and "vitamin Bc," lack of which results in poor growth and macrocytic hyperchromic anemia in chicks (28), and several growth factors for the bacteria Lactobacillus casei and Streptococcus lactis R (for a complete bibliography see reference 5) variously known as "norite eluate factor," "folic acid," "L. casei factor," "SLR factor," etc., are considered to be, if not identical, very closely related, and the name "folic acid" appears now to be applied indiscriminately to various members of the group. Crystalline substances corresponding to four of the above have been isolated, i.e., vitamin Bc from both liver and yeast (6, 63), vitamin Bc conjugate from yeast (64), and two L. casei factors, one from fermentation products and one from liver (35,90).…”