Niacin, vitamin B3, was the third of the B vitamins to be discovered. It was historically known as “vitamin PP” or “PP-factor” because it prevented a disease called pellagra (“pellagra-preventive factor”). Pellagra means ‘rough skin’, but doctors remember the symptoms of pellagra by the 4 D’s: Dermatitis; Diarrhea; Dementia; and Death.

Niacin was initially named nicotinic acid because it was first extracted from nicotine. Food fortification (vitamin-enriched foods) was introduced to prevent pellagra. In 1942, when the lay press learned that nicotinic acid was being added to flour, they ran with the headline: “Tobacco in Your Bread.”

A new name was coined to distance the vitamin from nicotine and to avoid the impression that cigarettes contain vitamins or that vitamins contain nicotine. The new name, niacin, comes from the words nicotinic, acid and vitamin.