Essential Fatty Acids-Their Role in Nutrition

Until recently, the importance of fat in the nutrition of animals and man was not adequately recognised. The essential nature of fat in the nutrition of the albino rat was first discovered in 1929 by Burr and Burr who observed that rats fed on a fat-free diet for 70 to 90 days did not grow and developed a deficiency syndrome characterised by scaliness of the skin and necrosis of the tail.