Riboflavin

Abstract

Riboflavin takes its name from flavus, the Latin word for yellow, and ribose, a simple sugar. Although a variety of water-soluble yellow dyes were studied by biochemists more than a century ago and, in retrospect, signs of riboflavin deficiency had been seen for many years, it was not until the late 1930s that agreement was reached on riboflavin’s status as a vitamin. Several reasons for this long delay can be suggested. Riboflavin deficiency does not produce a dramatic and life-threatening disease such as beriberi or pellagra. Diets that are deficient in riboflavin are likely to lack other essential nutrients as well, so that a mixed deficiency disease is seen. Finally, the chemistry of the vitamin B complex turned out to be far more difficult than could be imagined by those who first described “water-soluble B.”