[Magnesium for nutrition].

Magnesium plays an essential role in a very wide range of fundamental cellular reactions. The deficiency in the organism may lead to serious biochemical and symptomatic changes. In 1932, McCollum and coworkers made the first systematic observations of magnesium deficiency in rats and dogs. In 1934, the first description of clinical depletion in man was published in patients with various underlying diseases. In the early 1950, Flink and coworkers documented depletion of magnesium ion in alcoholics and in patients on magnesium-free i.v. solutions. In this paper, the biochemical and nutritional function, and nutritional essentiality for magnesium are reviewed.