In 1912, the Polish biochemist Kazimierz Funk introduced the term ‘vitamine’ (‘vital amine’) for dietary factors that could prevent diseases such as beri-beri, pellagra or scurvy. Although these diseases were known for centuries, their origins remained a mystery. It was Christiaan Eijkman, a Dutch physician and pathologist, who in 1897 started to investigate an outbreak of beri-beri in prisons ...

In 1912, the Polish biochemist Kazimierz Funk introduced the term ‘vitamine’ (‘vital amine’) for dietary factors that could prevent diseases such as beri-beri, pellagra or scurvy. Although these diseases were known for centuries, their origins remained a mystery. It was Christiaan Eijkman, a Dutch physician and pathologist, who in 1897 started to investigate an outbreak of beri-beri in prisons ...