How Did Vitamins Get Their Names?
In 1911 a Polish chemist, Casimir Funk, isolated from rice polish (a very thin, skin-like coating which covers rice grains, and which is removed in preparing the rice of commerce) a crystalline substance which cured the disease known as beri-beri, or polyneuritis. Because these crystals contained the chemical element nitrogen combined with hydrogen, Funk knew that they were “amines,” the chemist’s name for compounds containing this combination. Because these particular crystals preserved life he called them u vita-amine” or, for short, vitamine. When similar substances were discovered, which were also able to cure particular diseases, Funk suggested the general name “Vitamines” for all of them. In 1913 E. V. McCollum and his assistants extracted from butter and egg fat a substance which/like Funk’s crystals, proved to be necessary to growth, and also prevented and cured an eye disease known as “dry eye.” McCollum declined to call this a “vitamine” because chemical analysis showed that
In the 1920s, scientists believed that only two vitamins existed. One was fat-soluble, which means it could dissolve in oil or fat. This vitamin the scientists called Vitamin A. The other vitamin was water-soluble; it could dissolve only in water. This, they called Vitamin B. The fat-soluble vitamins were given letters of their
In 1911 a Polish chemist, Casimir Funk, iso- lated from rice polish (a very thin, skinlike coating which covers rice grains, and which is 8 WHAT ARE VITAMINS? removed in preparing the rice of commerce) a crystalline substance which cured the disease known as beri-beri, or polyneuritis. Because these crystals contained the chemical element nitrogen combined with hydrogen, Funk knew that they were “amines,” the chemist’s name for com- pounds containing this combination. Because these particular crystals preserved life he called them u vita-amine” or, for short, vitamine. When similar substances were discovered, which were also able to cure particular diseases, Funk sug- gested the general name “Vitamines” for all of them. In 1913 E. V. McCollum and his assistants extracted from butter and egg fat a substance which/like Funk’s crystals, proved to be neces- sary to growth, and also prevented and cured an eye disease known as “dry eye.” McCollum declined to call this a “vitamine” because ch
