Embryo-toxic effects produced by magnesium deficiency in rats.

As early as 1915, Jacques Loeb suspected that magnesium is an essential element. We now know that it has catalytic functions and is necessary for the anatomic and functional integrity of various sub-cellular organelles. Magnesium is involved in all the major metabolic processes, in ionic regulation, in maintaining potassium in the cell, in phospho-calcium metabolism, in immunological phenomena and in neuro-muscular functions. Thus, there is a growing concern that a deficiency of magnesium may be implicated in several diseases in man.