Funk, Casimir

Funk, Casimir. (1884-1948). Bom in Poland and later becoming an American citizen, Funk in 1911 isolated a food factor, extracted from rice hulls, that he found to be a cure for a disease caused by malnutrition (beri-beri). Believing this to be an amine compound essential to life, he coined the name vitamine, from which the final e was later dropped. The various types and functions of vitamins were not differentiated until some years later as a result of the work of McCollum, Szent-Gyorgi, R. J. Williams, and others. 

Funk, Casimir (1884-1967) Polish-born U.S. biochemist who isolated the first vitamin and suggested, correctly, that others existed. 

June, 1912 Casimir Funk, a Polish biochemist working in London, England, wrote a review article in which he elaborated on the fact that diseases such as scurvy, beri-beri, rickets and pellagra had long been known to be associated with the dietary. Funk said that these diseases could be prevented or cured by adding certain organic substances to the diet, substances he called vitamines. 0 )... 

Casimir Funk had come from Poland to the Lister Institute in London, England to investigate the chemical nature of the substance in rice-polishings (rice bran) that cured or prevented polyneuritis in birds, a disease closely related to beri-beri in humans. His research in this subject coupled with his awareness of what were becoming known as diet-related diseases, the deficiency diseases, led to his review article of 1912 in which he coined the term, vitamine. Vitamine, to Funk, was actually a variety of chemical substances, organic amines, that acted selective-... 

Earlier, I mentioned that Casimir Funk had raised the issue of priority in the discovery of the vitamins. Hopkins did not enter into the debate at the time but he did devote a significant part of his Nobel Address to Funk and his contributions to the vitamin hypothesis. With respect to the other principals involved in the early episodes of vitamin research, it is appropriate to see what Hopkins said about them in Stockholm on that December day in 1929- His comments afford one more illustration of both the clarity and confusion that dominated his 1912 paper. 

Casimir Funk (1884-1967), Polish-American biochemist, coins the term vitamine. Because the dietary substances he discovers are in the amine group, he calls all of them life-amines (using the Latin word vita for life ). 

The name vitamin was first used in 1912 by the Polish chemist Casimir Funk, who called them vitamines, because he thought that they all contained an amine functional group. Later the word was shortened to vitamin, because some are amines but others, like vitamins A and C, are not. 

A lack of thiamine in the diet causes the disease beri-beri, a nerve disease which in past years was common in the Orient, just before 1900 it was found by Eijkman in Java that beri beri occurred as a consequence of a diet consisting largely of polished rice, and that it could be cured by adding the rice polishings to the diet. In 1911 Casimir Funk assumed that beri-beri and similar diseases were due to a substance present in a satisfactory diet and missing from a deficient... 

Casimir Funk, The Vitamines, Second German Edition, trans. by Harry E. Dunn (Baltimore Williams and Wilkins, 1922), p. 352. 

Beriberi, a fatai disease, was prevaient at the turn of the nineteenth century among groups who ate iarge quantities of poiished rice. Casimir Funk correctiy theorized that the discarded poiishings contained some nutrient for disease prevention. Funk isolated this item and caiied it a vita-mine, combining vite, meaning iife, and amine. 

A vitamin is a substance the body cannot synthesize that is needed in small amounts for normal body function. Sir Frederick Hopkins was the first to suggest that diseases such as rickets and scurvy might result from the absence of substances in the diet that are needed only in very small quantities. Because the first such compound recognized to be essential in the diet was an amine, Casimir Funk incorrectly concluded that all such compounds were amines and called them vitamines ( life-amines ). The e was later dropped from the name. 

Nicotinic acid was first isolated by the Polish-American biochemist Casimir Funk (1884-1967) in 1912. At the time,... 

Nicotinic acid is first isolated by Polish-American biochemist Casimir Funk. 

Poiish-born US biochemist Casimir Funk (1884-1967) extracts antiberiberi factor (an amine) from rice husks and coins the term vitamine (vitai amine iater changed to vitamin ). 

The term vitamin was derived from vitamine a word made up by the Polish scientist Casimir Funk from vital and amine , with the meaning amine of life . It was suggested in 1912 that the organic micronutrient food factors that prevent beriberi and perhaps other similar dietary-deficiency diseases might be chemical amines. This proved incorrect for the micronutrient class and the word was shortened to vitamin. Vitamins have been produced as commodity chemicals since the middle of the 20th century and are widely available as inexpensive synthetic multivitamin dietary supplements. They are classified by... 

Similar observations were made by a Dutch physician, Christiaan Eijkman, in the Dutch colonies in Indonesia. While investigating the cause for a massive outbreak of beriberi, a disease characterized by paralysis, he noted that the hens in the laboratory began to exhibit a form of paralysis as well. He discovered that they were being fed rice from which the fibrous husk had been removed (called polished rice). When he fed the hens raw whole rice, their condition improved drastically. It was therefore realized that the fibrous husk of rice contained some vital growth factor. In 1912, Polish biochemist Casimir Funk isolated the active compound from rice husks. Careful studies revealed that the structure contained an amino group, and therefore belongs to a class of compounds called amines (see Chapter 23) ... 

The term vitamine was suggested by the Polish chemist, Casimir Funk, in 1912 in a paper on the etiology of deficiency diseases. 

In 1912, Dr. Casimir Funk, a 28-year-old Polish biochemist working in London, coined the word vitamine. Funk postulated, as others had before him, that beriberi, scurvy, pellagra, and possibly rickets, were caused by a lack in the diet of "special substances which are of the nature of organic bases, which we will call vitamlnes." Presumably, the name vita-mines alluded to the fact that they were vital to life, and that they were chemically of the nature of amines (nitrogen-containing). The name caught the popular fancy and persisted, despite the fact that the chemical assumption was later proved incorrect, with the result that the "e" was dropped in 1920 hence, the word vitamin. In 1922, Funks book entitled The Vitamins was published. 

From then on, chemists in many countries tried to concentrate the substance in rice that prevented beriberi in order to obtain it in pure form. Among them was Casimir Funk, of the Lister Institute, London, who, in 1912, coined the term vita-mine and applied it to the antiberiberi substance. 

---