Kashmir Funk in the Laboratory, 1954
Associated Press/Alamy
Casimir Funk, the Polish biochemist who coined the term “vitamin” to describe a group of important molecules that help keep us alive, is the subject of today’s Google Doodle.
There have been theories about how food affects health for thousands of years. In ancient Greece and Rome, early physicians invented the “humoral” theory. This theory states that food must have the right balance of wetness, dryness, hotness, and coldness to keep the four essential humors of the body in check (fire, earth, blood, and phlegm). Much later, doctors made clearer connections, such as the observation that consuming citrus fruits such as lemons helped prevent scurvy in sailors on long voyages.
In the late 19th century, scientists were trying to understand the cause of beriberi. Beriberi can affect a person’s nervous and cardiovascular systems and is now known as vitamin B1 deficiency. In 1897, Christian Eikman published a study based on experiments with chickens and proposed that a diet containing brown rice was more effective in preventing beriberi than a diet consisting only of white rice.
Casimir Funk read Aikman’s paper and set himself the challenge of finding a compound that confers protective properties on brown rice. In 1912, Funk was able to isolate the chemical believed to be responsible, and discovered that it contained characteristic nitrogen compounds called amines, which he identified as important amines, or vitamins. I named it. Eventually, scientists realized that vitamins don’t necessarily have to contain an amine group, so they dropped the final “e.”
Funk suggests that similar compounds may be present in many other “deficiencies,” as he calls them, “talking about the beriberi and scurvy vitamins. “It means a substance that prevents disease.” Funk also correctly suggested that there are vitamins that prevent pellagra and rickets.
The compound Funk isolated and named “anti-beriberi factor,” now called vitamin B3, or niacin, does not actually prevent beriberi. Two years ago, Japanese scientist Umetaro Suzuki isolated vitamin B1 from brown rice and pinpointed its role in preventing beriberi. However, his research was published in a Japanese magazine, and the first Western translation, written in German, did not describe it as a new discovery.
Thirty-five years after Funk’s initial discovery, scientists have discovered a total of 13 remaining vitamins, including eight B vitamins and vitamins A, C, D, E, and K. Funk continued his research into vitamins and into pharmaceuticals. For the rest of his career, he remained with the company. He produced the first widely used vitamin concentrate in the United States called his OSCODAL, which contained liquid vitamins A and D.
Although vitamins are recognized to help prevent certain diseases, the use of vitamins as supplements is still debated among scientists. A recent meta-analysis found that there is not enough evidence that supplements and vitamins prevent cancer or heart disease for most people.
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