Studies on vitamin 'A' deficiency.

Bhatia, I. S. (1953) Studies on vitamin 'A' deficiency. Bulletin of Central Food Technological Research Institute, 2. pp. 204-207.

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Abstract

THE role of Vitamin A in the metabolism of visual purple has been reported by several workers (4, 10, 8, 7). Vitamin A was shown to be a precursor of the visual purple in the pigments of frog's eyes (9). The visual purple system uses up vitamin A and is, therefore, dependent on the diet for its replacement (9). The deficiency of Vitamin A will, therefore, cause difficulty or inability to see in dim light. The deficiency of Vitamin A in the human ,ystem is associated with a number of eye lesions. In adults and grown-up children night-blindness is the first common symptom of Vitamin A deficiency. The second stage of the disease results in the dryness of the conjuctiva (xerosis). Keratomalacia is an advanced stage in the eye manifestations of adults as well as infants. This starts with the softening of the cornea and ultimately leads to the destruction of the eye and blindness through secondary infections. The prevalence of such eye diseases is very common among people who suffer from malnutrition. Among Japanese children Mori (6) found the incidence of xerophthalmia to be very high, especially in times of famine. Block (2) reported the occurrence of the same disease among the poor Danish and attributed it to the general use of skim milk in infant and hild feeding. Similar cases have been reported in Roumania and Vienna (3). In India, a survey of Vitamin A deficiency was carried out at Calcutta (1). A similar survey was made by the author in Lahore (Punjab) in 1945 and this paper presents the results of the same.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Vitamin A, eye diseases, deficiency
Subjects:	600 Technology > 01 Medical sciences > 11 Malnutrition 600 Technology > 08 Food technology > 16 Nutritive value > 04 Vitamins
Divisions:	Dept. of Biochemistry
Depositing User:	Food Sci. & Technol. Information Services
Date Deposited:	14 Aug 2012 09:11
Last Modified:	14 Aug 2012 09:11
URI:	http://ir.cftri.res.in/id/eprint/5877

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