What was the first vitamin?

The late 1800’s in east Asia, a sickness called Beriberi was rampant. At that time, polished white rice was the common staple food of the middle and lower classes.

In 1884, Takaki Kanehiro, a British trained medical doctor of the Japanese Navy, observed that beriberi was endemic among low-ranking crew who often ate nothing but rice, but not among crews of Western navies and officers who consumed a Western-style diet.

A Dutch physician, Christann Eijkman about that time discovered substituting unpolished rice for polished rice would prevent the terrible disease, ‘ beriberi’.

In 1911, the polish chemist, Casimir Funk discovered the actual substance in unpolished rice the prevented the disease. At that time it was categorized as an amine, (a nitrogen-containing compound) Funk realized that it was a substance vital to proper body function and named it “vital amine”. It become known as Vitamin B for the illness, “beriberi” that it was discovered to cure.

In 1913, Vitamin ’A’ was added to the list as an essential requirement nutritional for health. Then in 1928, “C” became our third vitamin on the list.

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