Vitamins for Victory • In a l l wars since history began disease has been the cause of more casualties, both military a o d civilian, than the weapons of the enemy-* During the last 'World War it began to be recognized that some o f these diseases, such as scurvy, were caused by a definite deficiency o f some essential ingredient i n the diet while others probably spread because of lowered resistance of the population due to this and other dietary lacks. Because of their relationship to life, these essentials were termed vitamins. Since practically nothing was known about them, at tlie tunc, little could be done toward correcting these deficiencies. Since then science has made tremendous strides in the chemistry o f vitamins. The structure of most of those isolated has been determined and methods for synthesizing many of them developed. The nations of the world have not been slow to recognize the importance o f the vitamins. In her rearmament program Germany included factories for their production along with those for manufacturing gruns, explosives and other munitions o f war. One important ingredient in the emergency ration of the German parachute troops has been tablets of synthetic Ascorbic Acid var plans. Enriched flours and breads, to which a number o f the vitamins together with certain minerals have been added., have received official sanction. This development has been hampered by a n insufficient supply of one of the vitamin ingredients - Riboflavin (vitamin B 2 ) . Cha$. Pfizer & Co., Inc. has been one of the largest producers of Ascorbic Acid (vitamin C) for several years. There has been a continual increase in our production of this synthetic vitamin and plans are now in the process of consummation which will still further enlarge our productive facilities. After a research program of several years, the production of Riboflavin (vitamin B - ) was started by our Company in 1940. At the present time we are bending every effort toward si great increase in the size of our productive facilities in order t o assist in supplying the large quantities of this essential vitamin which are needed.
MANUFACTURING CHEMISTS • ESTABLISHED 1 8 4 9
& Co., Inc.
Pfizer
Chas.
8 1 MAIDEN LANE, NEW YORK • 4 4 4 V . GRAND AVE., CHICAGO, ILL, VOLUME
21, NO.
12
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» JUNE
2 5,
1943
1013
