Pellagra Timeline

By jannasherman
  • 7000 BCE

    Farmers domesticate corn in the Rio Balsas region of present-day Mexico

  • 1000 BCE

    Masa produced by nixtamalization increases nutritional value of corn

  • 1500

    Spanish explorers take corn to Europe

  • European Settlers arrive and are taught to nixtamalize corn by Native Americans

  • Pellagra occurs across southern Europe

  • Gaspar Casal diagnoses pellagra in Spain

  • John Beall patents the Beall Degerminator

  • Joseph Goldberger proposes pellagra is not infections but is a disease based on an insufficient diet

  • In an experiment at a prison in Mississippi, Goldberger induces pellagra in prisoners by restricting their diet

  • Goldberger and his colleagues conduct "filth parties" in an attempt to 'catch' pellagra

  • Cotton prices fall and pellagra rates rise. Southern Leaders insist that famine and plague does not exist in the South

  • Pellagra epidemic ends after niacin is added to bread and flour (including cornmeal)