Effect of Riboflavin, Pyridoxine and Other Vitamins on the Urinary Corticoids and Tryptophan Metabolism in Children

Rural children were administered riboflavin, pyridoxine and other vitamins in various combination in an attempt to determine whether the urinary excre-tion of 17-ketosteroid and 17-hydroxy corticoid would reflect the administration of these vitamins. In addition, tryptophan-load-test was conducted to investigate the effect of vitamin other than pyridoxine on the metabolism of tryptophan. The result was that the urinary pattern of 17-hydroxy corticoid was improved significantly, and xanthurenic acid excretion was decreased remarkably after sup-plementation of not only pyridoxine but also of riboflavin. From the data pre-sented here it seems that some of the children were deficient in riboflavin and pyridoxine, and this may cause stresses to and disorder of tryptophan metabo-lism among them.