science · 20 November 1967 · 57 years ago
death
Died 20 Nov 1967 at age 83 (born 23 Feb 1884).
Polish-American biochemist who coined the term “vitamine.” In 1912, as had previously been proposed by Sir Frederick Hopkins, Funk pusued the idea that diseases such as beriberi, scurvy, rickets and pellagra were caused by lack of vital substances in the diet. His investigation of Christiaan Eijkman's anti-beriberi factor had shown that it was an amine (an organic substance wih molecules containing the -NH2 amine group). Funk assumed (though incorrectly) that all similar substances were also amines, and he named such factors vitamines ("life-amines"). When later it was discovered that not all the factors were amines, the spelling of the word was changed to "vitamin." Funk isolated nicotinic acid from rice polishing, later used against pellagra by Warburgh and Elvehjem.
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