How vitamins were discovered

In 1897, C. Aikman discovered in Java that beriberi could be developed by eating only finely ground white rice, and that unmilled brown rice could treat the disease. It was found that substances that could treat beriberi could be extracted with water or alcohol. At that time, this substance was called "water-soluble B".

In 1906, it was proved that food contains "cofactors" other than protein, lipids, carbohydrates, inorganic salts and water, which are small but necessary for animal growth.

In 1911, C. Funk identified that the substance that can fight beriberi in brown rice is a nitrogen-containing compound such as amines, which is necessary to maintain life, so it was proposed to name it "Vitamine". That is, the amine of Vital Life, which means "life amine" in Chinese. Later, many vitamins were discovered one after another, with different chemical properties and different physiological