pellagra
nounUK /pɪˈlaɡɹə/
Etymology From Italian pellagra, from Latin pellis (“skin”) + Ancient Greek ἄγρα (ágra, “seizure, attack, catching”).
1
Medicine, Pathology, Sciences A disease characterised by skin lesions and mental confusion, primarily caused by a niacin deficiency.
- In 1755 the French physician Gaspar Casal (1680–1759) published an account of pellagra, then a new disease in Spain.1997, Roy Porter, The Greatest Benefit to Mankind, Folio Society, published 2016, page 531:
- Mixing the alkali into the recipe in the right way chemically releases the otherwise unavailable niacin in the corn, which stops pellagra in its tracks, and allowed corn-based agricultural populations to grow and spread.2016, Joseph Henrich, chapter 7, in The Secret of Our Success […] , Princeton: Princeton University Press, →ISBN:
- Derived terms
- antipellagra, pellagragenic, pellagroid
- Related terms
- pellagric, pellagrous