Preface
Mysterious Diseases Caused by Lack of Vitamins
Great Findings Arise from Raising Chickens
Vitamin C and B were Discovered
Vitamin B2--- the Second Water Soluble B Nutrient
Corn Pellagra and Niacin a Member of Vitamin B Complex
Search for Treatment of Pernicious Anemia
Sunshine Vitamin D and Rickets
Night Blindness and Vitamin A
Bringing Forth Offspring Vitamin E
Blood Clotting and Vitamin K
Take Care of Your Vitamin Intake
In 1910, chemist Robert Williams analyzed liquid extracted from rice polishings, painstakingly testing each substance from it for its effect on polyneuritis, the chicken disease similar to beriberi. The following year, Polish chemist Dr. Casimir Fund, working at the Lister Institute in London, read the report from Dr. Ejjkman and decided to separate that strange material from rice husk. He used almost 170 pounds of raw rice to collect 170 mg of that material, which could prevent beriberi, and found it was a kind of amine substance. He coined the word vitamine, deriving it from vita, meaning “life” and amine, referring to a class of nitrogen-containing organic compounds. Later, scientists realized that not all bitamins are amines, so the final e in vitamine was dropped. The word vitamin still reflects the vital life-gibing importance of these substances. In 1934, Williams isolated the substance that would solve the beriberi riddle. The vitamin, thiamin, is commonly known as vitamin B1. this discovery is one of the keys that unlocked the mystery of the cause of berineri.
Twenty years later, the Hungarian scientist Dr. Albert Szent Gyorgyi found the adrenal gland could secrete a kind of acid substance, and ascorbid acid or vitamin C, could prevent scorbutic. In the beginning, however, it was impossible to concentrate vitamin C from animal adrenal glands, as collecting one ounce of vitamin C required several tons of animal adrenal glands. Fortunately, several years later, Dr. Szent Gyorgye found hot peppers could be a rich source of vitamin C, and then synthesized it chemically, Dr. Ejjkman and Hopin won the 1929 Nobel Prize in physiology, and Dr. Szent Gyorgyi won 1937 Nobel Prized in medicine.