Introduction Vitamin B6 is required as a growth factor by a wide variety of bacteria, yeasts, and molds and for the nutrition of all species of animals studied. In man it is an essential nutrient, and deficiency of vitamin B6 results in characteristic alterations of the skin, mucous membranes, and nervous system. Like other vitamins, vitamin B6 functions as a coenzyme of importance in a wide variety of enzyme systems concerned with intermediary metabolism. Vitamin B6 is now used as a class name to include all compounds having vitamin B6 activity. These include pyridoxine, pyridoxal, and pyridoxamine. To Gyorgy1 (1934) goes the credit for establishing vitamin B6 as an entity in the vitamin B complex. Within two years of the original observations of Gyorgy, five independent reports announced the isolation of pyridoxine from various natural materials.2-6 In 1939, Harris and Folkers7 successfully synthesized pyridoxine. Snell8 recognized the existence of other