Vitamin B1 (thiamin) is found naturally in certain foodstuffs such as green peas, spinach, liver, bananas, whole grains and legumes. Human diseases associated with thiamin deficiency include beriberi, due to a thiamin-deficient diet, TMRA, due to defects in the SLC19A2 transport protein, and Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome, associated with thiamin deficiency in alcoholism (Haas 1988). Thiamin is water-soluble so is not stored in the body. When pyrophosphorylated, thiamin is converted into the coenzyme thiamin pyrophosphate (ThPP, codecarboxylase) which plays an essential role in oxidative decarboxylation and group transfer reactions.