In 1898 Patrick Manson gave a graphic account of beriberi. He described how medical visitors to “native hospitals in many parts of the tropical world” were likely to have “their attention arrested by the large proportion of cases of partial paraplegia, of cases of oedema of the legs, and of cases of general dropsy. These, for the most part, are cases of beriberi”.1 The visitor, Manson continued...

Chaenomeles sinensis has been consumed traditionally for the treatment of throat diseases, diarrhea, inflammatory diseases, and dry beriberi. Repeated chromatography of the CHCl3-soluble fraction from the 80% MeOH extract of C. sinensis twigs led to the isolation of three new triterpenoids, sinenic acid A (1), 3β-O-cis-feruloyl-2α,19α-dihydroxyurs-12-en-28-oic acid (2), and 3β-O-cis-caffeoylbet...

In the early part of the rainy season in 1988, an outbreak of beriberi occurred in free-living adults in a relatively small area in the North Bank region of The Gambia. In 1995 we selected two compounds in a village called Chilla situated within the affected district to retrospectively examine dietary factors potentially contributing to the outbreak. There had previously been cases of beriberi ...

An association between excessive alcohol consumption and heart disease has been known for a long time. Aalsmeer and Wenckebach (1929) described the cardiac manifestations of Oriental beriberi, and thereafter this condition was recognized in the Occident as being mainly the result of alcoholism. Furthermore, it was thought that this was the only way in which alcohol affected the heart, and many ...

Beriberi has long been recognized as being of special significance among the avitaminoses. It was not the first disease to be associated with a specific nutritional deficiency, but the researches of Christian Eijkman into polyneuritis in the early years of this century, and Casimir Funk's apparent isolation of an anti-beriberi factor in 1911, led to the discovery and identification of vitamins ...