Kazimierz Funk: Polish vitamins' discoverer. / Kazimierz Funk - polski odkrywca witamin.

Kazimierz Funk, born on February 23, 1884, in Warsaw, demonstrated an early inclination toward the field of human physiology. He charted his scientific trajectory within esteemed European scientific institutions, commencing at the age of 16 in Geneva, where he pursued studies in natural sciences. Subsequently, he continued his academic endeavors in Bern, culminating in the attainment of his doctorate in 1904. Following this, Funk relocated to Paris and secured a position at the Pasteur Institute. In France, his research concentrated on elucidating the role of trace elements in the human body. In 1906 he transitioned to Berlin, collaborating with Hermann Fisher (1852-1919) to investigate proteins and cancer processes. In 1910, Funk ventured to London, joining the Lister Institute, where he initiated research on beriberi disease. His investigations led to the isolation of a substance pivotal in treating the ailment, which he termed "vitamin" (derived from 'vita' meaning life and 'amine' indicating a nitrogen-containing compound). Despite four nominations for the Nobel Prize (in 1914, 1925, 1926, and 1946), Kazimierz Funk didn't receive the prestigious accolade. In 1925, at the urging of Dr. Ludwik Rajchman (1881-1965), the director of the National Institute of Hygiene, Funk assumed the directorship of the Biochemistry and Hygiene of Nutrition Branch at the National School of Hygiene. Under Funk's guidance, Poland became the third European country to produce insulin. Kazimierz Funk passed away on November 19, 1967, in New York City, at the age of 83. His significant contributions to the fields of biochemistry and nutrition endure as a testament to his enduring impact on scientific understanding. This proposal aims to condense and emphasise Kazimierz Funk's diverse scientific interests and the various scientific teams and sites he collaborated with, which ultimately led to his groundbreaking discover.

Pellagra Pre-Goldberger: Rupert Blue, Fleming Sandwith, and The "Vitamine Hypothesis".

The conquest of pellagra is commonly associated with one name: Joseph Goldberger of the US Public Health Service, who in 1914 went south, concluded within 4 months that the cause was inadequate diet, spent the rest of his life researching the disease, and--before his death from cancer in 1929--found that brewer's yeast could prevent and treat it at nominal cost. It does Goldberger no discredit to emphasize that between 1907 and 1914 a patchwork coalition of asylum superintendents, practicing physicians, local health officials, and others established for the first time an English-language competence in pellagra, sifted through competing hypotheses, and narrowed the choices down to two: an insect-borne infection hypothesis, championed by the flamboyant European Louis Westerna Sambon, and the new "vitamine hypothesis," proffered by Casimir Funk in early 1912 and articulated later that year by two members of the American Clinical and Climatological Association, Fleming Mant Sandwith and Rupert Blue. Those who resisted Goldberger's inconvenient truth that the root cause was southern poverty drew their arguments largely from the Thompson-McFadden Pellagra Commission, which traces back to Sambon's unfortunate influence on American researchers. Thousands died as a result.

Casimer Funk, nonconformist nomenclature, and networks surrounding the discovery of vitamins.

In the 2 decades between when the existence of vitamins was first postulated and when they were isolated, scientists and research physicians could produce no conclusive evidence for their existence from the laboratory or clinic. By the time the first vitamin was chemically isolated, vitamins were already widely accepted by scientists, clinicians, the public, and government agencies. In the period between when vitamins were postulated and the Nobel Prize was awarded for their discovery, a debate over nomenclature served as a substitute for a priority dispute. The most popular term "vitamine" was introduced by Casimer Funk in 1912 and was changed to "vitamin" by Cecil Drummond in 1920. Initial conditions surrounding the discovery of vitamins, including World War I, necessitated the creation of unusual networks for the dissemination of scientific information about vitamins. In Great Britain, research institutes, government agencies, and individual researchers were instrumental in creating a set of national and international networks for the dissemination of information from research laboratories to hospitals, physicians, pharmaceutical houses, and the public. These networks of dissemination still exert an influence on how scientific information about vitamins is communicated to the public today.

Nobel laureates in the history of the vitamins.

Research on vitamins has advanced considerably over the past 100 years with numerous advancements in the fields of biochemistry, medicine, and nutrition. The purpose of this article is to present the history of vitamins using Nobel Prizes as a framework for each vitamin-related discovery. The Nobel Prize Presentation Speech and Nobel Lecture were reviewed for each Nobel Laureate who received an award for vitamin-related research. The original scientific work of a number of awardees was also utilized as a primary source of the history. Nobel Prizes were awarded primarily for the identification, isolation, and synthesis of vitamins. Additional awards recognized the role of specific vitamins in disease processes. The awarding of over 10 Nobel Prizes in Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine in the last century has recognized the seminal work of numerous scientists and physicians and showcased multiple important advancements in vitamins research.

The discovery and characterization of riboflavin.

The first observation of a pigment in milk with yellow-green fluorescence can be traced to the English chemist Alexander Wynter Blyth in 1872, but it was not until the early 1930s that the substance was characterized as riboflavin. Interest in accessory food factors began in the latter half of the 19th century with the discovery of the first vitamin, thiamin. Thiamin was water soluble and given the name vitamin B(1). However, researchers realized that there were one or more additional water-soluble factors and these were called the vitamin B-2 complex. The search to identify these accessory food factors in milk, whole wheat, yeast, and liver began in the early 1900s. As there is no classical nutritional disease attributable to riboflavin deficiency, it was the growth-stimulating properties of the food extracts given to young rats that provided the tool with which to investigate and eventually extract riboflavin. Riboflavin was the second vitamin to be isolated and the first from the vitamin B-2 complex; the essential nature of the vitamin as a food constituent for man was shown in 1939.

The discovery of the vitamins.

The discovery of the vitamins was a major scientific achievement in our understanding of health and disease. In 1912, Casimir Funk originally coined the term "vitamine". The major period of discovery began in the early nineteenth century and ended at the mid-twentieth century. The puzzle of each vitamin was solved through the work and contributions of epidemiologists, physicians, physiologists, and chemists. Rather than a mythical story of crowning scientific breakthroughs, the reality was a slow, stepwise progress that included setbacks, contradictions, refutations, and some chicanery. Research on the vitamins that are related to major deficiency syndromes began when the germ theory of disease was dominant and dogma held that only four nutritional factors were essential: proteins, carbohydrates, fats, and minerals. Clinicians soon recognized scurvy, beriberi, rickets, pellagra, and xerophthalmia as specific vitamin deficiencies, rather than diseases due to infections or toxins. Experimental physiology with animal models played a fundamental role in nutrition research and greatly shortened the period of human suffering from vitamin deficiencies. Ultimately it was the chemists who isolated the various vitamins, deduced their chemical structure, and developed methods for synthesis of vitamins. Our understanding of the vitamins continues to evolve from the initial period of discovery.

[Carl Arthur Scheunert's experiments on human nutrition, 1938-1943: boundary transgressions of a scientist under national socialism]. / Carl Arthur Scheunerts Ernährungsversuche am Menschen 1938-1943: Grenzüberschreitungen eines Wissenschaftlers im Nationalsozialismus.

Carl Arthur Scheunert (1879-1957) was a German scientist who supervised several studies with prisoners that were designed to assess the optimal vitamin and nutrient supply, and were conducted by his associate Karl-Heinz Wagner (1911-2007) from 1938 to 1943. This contribution describes the aims, results and conclusions of Scheunert's research 1923 to 1945 in comparison with the national and international vitamin research and its consequences for public health measures. Conditions and results of the human experiments are reconstructed and compared with similar studies performed in other countries. Burden as well as health risks for the study participants are assessed. In addition, it is discussed whether general rules for human experimentation were followed (e.g. informed consent and minimizing of health risks). Although the available documents support the conclusion that no deaths or lasting injuries were caused, the experiments violated ethical standards, in particular because of the conditions in the Waldheim prison including progressive deterioration of nutrition and health.

One hundred years of vitamins-a success story of the natural sciences.

The discovery of vitamins as essential factors in the diet was a scientific breakthrough that changed the world. Diseases such as scurvy, rickets, beriberi, and pellagra were recognized to be curable with an adequate diet. These diseases had been prevalent for thousands of years and had a dramatic impact on societies as well as on economic development. This Review highlights the key achievements in the development of industrial processes for the manufacture of eight of the 13 vitamins.

Casimir Funk: his discovery of the vitamins and their deficiency disorders.

The history of the discovery of vitamins is the history of their deficiency disorders. Their discoverer was Casimir Funk, who is considered the 'father of vitamin therapy'. In his experimental research, Funk studied the interrelationships in the human body of those elements that Eijkman had demonstrated in animals, particularly in birds. In his experimental research, Funk identified the dietetic factors whose lack caused the 'deficiency disorders', as he called human beri-beri, scurvy, rickets and pellagra. In 1911, he designated these factors 'vitamins' ('vita' = life, and 'amine' = a nitrogenous substance essential for life); this name was accepted by the scientific community in 1912.

[Natural or synthetic vitamin C? A new substance's precarious status behind the scenes of World War II]. / Natürliches oder künstliches Vitamin C? Der prekäre Status eines neuen Stoffes im Schatten des Zweiten Weltkriegs.

Today, thousands of tons of vitamin C (l-ascorbic acid) is synthesized every year by the pharmaceutical industry. Synthetically produced vitamin C is widely accepted as having the same physiological effects as vitamin C isolated from natural sources. This is an important difference compared to the 1930s when vitamin C was synthesized for the first time. The identity of synthetic vitamin C with natural vitamin C had to be established. First of all, the scientific community had to accept that artificial I-ascorbic acid and natural vitamin C were chemically identical and had the same physiological effects. Second, other communities like food manufacturers, military health officials, and the broader public also had to be persuaded that these substances were equal. This article demonstrates how Hoffmann-La Roche, a Swiss pharmaceutical company and world-leading producer of synthetic vitamins in the 20th century, tried to coax its adversaries into supporting artificial vitamin C. In doing so, synthetic vitamin C was naturalized in different ways. In the case of Switzerland during the Second World War era, the mentality of national defense and the quest for products supporting autarchy helped to convince perspective consumers. Thus in order to sell a new chemical substance, cultural meaning had to be attached to it.

Nutrition science and policy research: implications for Mediterranean diets.

Current attempts to persuade doctors and policymakers of the benefits of Mediterranean diets need to account for the pervasive and long-standing perception of nutritional issues such as nutritional deficiency. Global policies that are currently conditioning the agricultural and food industries are based on the prewar recognition of the benefits of animal protein for promoting childhood growth and the value of "balanced diets" for avoiding micronutrient deficiencies. Massive national experiments in food rationing during the war, widespread refugee problems after the war, and the threat of German and then Soviet naval blockades of imported food forced food security and animal production to the top of national priorities. Mediterranean diets can now be recognized as both limited in toxicity and abundant in nutrient and nonnutrient protective factors, but a coherent evaluation of these diets will be needed to shift the current simplified views of dietary needs in Western societies.

Is Linus Pauling, a vitamin C advocate, just making much ado about nothing? (Review).

Clinical use of vitamin C has been the subject of much debate in both the USA and Japan. We examine a number of topics to clarify the reasons for the confrontation of opinion between the pros and the cons as to the medical usefulness of this vitamin. We refer to our own experiences on the use of vitamin C infusion treatment for the control of either diabetes mellitus or autoimmune disease and allergy to show the importance of pharmacological considerations in the assessment of the effect of vitamin C. We also refer to a number of scientific debates to prove that a shift of paradigm is indispensable for getting a full comprehension of the benefits of vitamin C including the control of both diabetes mellitus and autoimmune disease/allergy complex.

[History of vitamins]. / Geschichte der Vitamine.

The history of the discovery of vitamins was initiated by the observation that beriberi is caused by qualitatively poor nutrition rather than by microorganisms. An early theory suggested the formation of toxins by improper cooking, preservation, or storage; however, research soon took another turn. Feeding experiments with standardized food pointed at the existence of 'accessory factors', present in food in small amounts. These factors seemed to be essential for the maintenance of metabolic processes, yet could not be synthesized by the organism. This was the initial spark for a worldwide research boom. The period from 1912 to 1948 saw the isolation and identification of individual factors belonging to a variety of chemical classes collectively labeled as 'vitamins'.