A potentially fatal nutritional disorder caused by a deficiency of vitamin B complex (niacin). The symptoms are DERMATITIS, diarrhoea and DEMENTIA. The deficiency occurs mainly in poor people in developing countries where maize is a prime constituent of the diet. Nicotinic acid in maize is in a bound form that the consumer cannot utilise. Further, maize is deficient in the amino acid, tryptophan, from which the human body can make nicotinic acid (see AMINO ACIDS).
Treatment
The disease is prevented or cured by adding to the diet, foods such as fresh meat, eggs, milk, liver, and yeast extracts, as well as nicotinic acid – in addition to improving the general conditions of life.