Niacin : Antipellagra Factor Hypocholesterolemic Agent

Niacin, anti pellagra factor, which was found recently to be a hypocholesterolemic agent, serves well as a prototype of the trends nutrition research in the present century. When Joseph Goldberger initialed his studies of the aetiology of pellagra in 1914, the concept that disease could be due to deficiency of a nutritional factor was relatively new and had not gained wide acceptance. Following Goldberger's early work, nutrition research was directed towards delineation of deficiency syndromes resulting from an inadequate intake of vitamins.