The discovery of vitamins began at the end of 19 and the beginning of the 20th century. 1896 Dutch doctor Aikman was sent to the Netherlands to study beriberi. When doing experiments with chickens, a person in charge of raising chickens stole white rice from the hospital ward to feed them, and deducted the money for buying chicken feed for himself, so the chickens got beriberi. A few months later, a newcomer took over the job of feeding chickens and changed polished rice into hullless rice at a low price. Soon the chicken's beriberi was cured, so he determined that rice husk contained a substance that could prevent beriberi, but he did not separate it.
From 65438 to 0906, Japanese biochemist Shirataro Suzuki returned from Germany and began to study the nutritional components of rice. He soaked rice bran in alcohol and evaporated the alcohol to get a brown powder. Chickens suffering from beriberi were cured with only a small amount, which proved that rice bran contains a substance for treating foot diseases. He published this conclusion in 19 10.
19 12 years, Finnish biochemist Feng Ke isolated a crystal from rice bran, determined that it had pyrimidine structure, and named it "vitamin", which came from Latin words "life" and "amine", that is, "life amine", and thought it was an element of supplementary food. Now it's called vitamins.
1906~ 19 12, conducted by British biochemist Hopkins. In the experiment of feeding mice, it was found that protein, fat and sugar alone could not sustain life. If a small amount of milk is added every day, mice will develop well. So in 19 12, he said that there is an auxiliary food element in milk.
Aikman and Hopkins won the 1929 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine, which opened the curtain of modern vitamins.
19 13, American biochemists mccollum and Edgeworth Beresford David discovered another supplementary food element from butter and egg yolk, which is different from "life amine". It is soluble in fat, while "life amine" is soluble in water. They are called fat-soluble A and water-soluble B respectively. After that, vitamins are divided into water-soluble and fat-soluble two categories.
By 1920, British biochemist drummond discovered that not all vitamins contain amines. He also renamed fat-soluble A and water-soluble B as vitamin A and vitamin B; He found in 19 19 that the supplementary food element against scurvy ranked third, called vitamin C; 1920, mccollum and his colleagues found an auxiliary food element against rickets from cod liver oil, called vitamin d; 1922, Evans and Scott, professors of biochemistry at the University of California, confirmed the existence of vitamin E against infertility.
With the development of research, chemists separated them from food, determined their chemical composition and structure, and synthesized them. In addition, it is also found that some are complex mixtures, and some can be transformed from other substances. It is considered that some of them are not named accurately in the order of A, B, C and D, so they are named directly by chemical names.
Vitamin A exists in animal liver and milk. 193 1 year, Swiss chemist Keller determined its composition, structure and synthesized it. He also found that carotene and vitamin A have similar structures. Carotene was discovered from carrots as early as 1832 by Vacherod, a German pharmaceutical professor. 1929, British biochemist Moore found that vitamin A was stored in the liver of mice after feeding carrots, and concluded that carotene could be converted into vitamin A in animals. Now carotene has been renamed as provitamin A or provitamin A. ..
Vitamin B was found to be a mixture in the 1930s. German chemist Windaus first separated vitamin B from rice bran and yeast and determined its composition. It contains sulfur and is called thiamine. According to medical books, lack of thiamine can lead to beriberi. Adult beriberi is characterized by polyneuritis, muscular atrophy and edema, with weakness and fatigue at first, then headache, insomnia, dizziness, loss of appetite, other gastrointestinal symptoms and tachycardia. Thiamine was successfully synthesized by American chemist R·R· Williams in 1936.
After that, German chemist Kuhn separated vitamin B2 from yeast, analyzed its composition and structure, and synthesized it in 1934. It is an orange-yellow crystalline compound, also known as riboflavin, which is an indispensable substance in the process of tissue respiration. If riboflavin is insufficient in the body, it will cause disorder of substance metabolism, which is manifested as various deficiencies. Animal foods usually contain high riboflavin, as do many green leafy vegetables and beans.
Kale and Kuhn won the Nobel Prize in chemistry with 1937 and 1938 respectively.
Nicotinic acid, pantothenic acid, pyridoxine, folic acid, biotin, vitamin B 12 and so on are also separated from vitamin B.
Vitamin B 12 is the last member of vitamin B family. As early as the early 20th century, whipple, an American pathologist, tried to feed dogs with liver and found that the hemoglobin of dogs increased. From 65438 to 0924, Minotte, an American doctor, and Murphy, an assistant, gave the liver to a patient with pernicious anemia according to the experimental results of whipple, and the patient was quickly cured. 1948, American biochemist Alex isolated a red crystalline compound from animal liver, which was called vitamin B 12. In the same year, British biochemist E·I· Smith and American biochemist Folques separated pure vitamin B 12 respectively. The molecular structure of vitamin B 12 was determined by X-ray diffraction in 1956 by the British chemist Mrs. Hodkin. It was found that the molecule contained cobalt, so it was named cobalamin or cobalt vitamin. Lack of vitamin B 12 can lead to pernicious anemia. The content of liver, kidney, meat, fish and egg yolk is high. Bacteria in human and animal intestines can synthesize it, so vitamin B 12 is generally not lacking.
Whipple, Minotte and Murphy won the 1934 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine. Mrs. Hodkin won the 1964 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
In 1928, Hungarian biochemist Szentgyorgy first isolated vitamin C from cabbage leaves. Widely exists in citrus, mountain slag, tomato, pepper and other fruits and vegetables. Lack of it in food can lead to microvascular rupture and bleeding, which is called scurvy. 1933 synthesized by Swiss-Polish biochemist Reich Stein.
Shortly after the discovery of vitamin D, American chemist Steinbeck and others found that ergosterol was converted into vitamin D under ultraviolet irradiation. Meanwhile, some doctors report that ultraviolet radiation can cure rickets in children. Therefore, ergosterol is considered to be pro-vitamin D or pro-vitamin D. Ergosterol exists in ergot and yeast. 1926, German chemist Windaus clearly pointed out that ergosterol exists in human body as an impurity of cholesterol, and can be converted into vitamin D under the sunlight. Therefore, Windaus won the 1928 Nobel Prize in chemistry.
Vitamin K was isolated by American biochemist Link et al. at 194 1, which is called clotting vitamin. It widely exists in green plants and can accelerate blood coagulation.