The biochemist is known as the 'father' of vitamins

At the beginning of the 20th century, Casimir Funk introduced a revolutionary point of view - diseases can appear due to the lack of certain essential nutrients.

The name vitamin , originally vitamine, is a combination of the words "vita" (life in Latin) and "amine" (a nitrogen-containing chemical compound). This name was coined by Polish-American biochemist Casimir Funk in 1912, when he discovered that the cause of certain diseases is the deficiency of certain components in the diet.

Biochemist Casimir Funk, "father" of vitamins. (Photo: American Institute of Polish Culture).

This discovery, along with research over the following five decades, including contributions to 140 technical papers and 30 reviews and research articles, earned Funk the title " Father of Vitamins" . Proving essential vitamins for human health. Funk's work led to the discovery of 13 vitamins in 35 years, all the vitamins known to man today. This helped save countless lives, while leaving a lasting mark on the fields of biochemistry and nutrition.

Casimir Funk was born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1884. Funk was the son of a Polish doctor, so his family wanted him to become a doctor too. However, he aimed for a doctorate in chemistry at the University of Berne, Switzerland, and achieved this goal in 1904, at the age of 20. Funk then became a biochemist at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. He went on to work at Wiesbaden City Hospital in Germany, the University of Berlin, and the Lister Institute in London. He immigrated to America in 1915 and held a number of important positions in universities and industry in New York.

In 1912, Funk discovered four diseases: Beriberi (which can affect the circulatory and nervous systems), Scurvy (which causes teeth and gums to rot), Pellagra (which leads to complications such as dermatitis), and Rickets, all stem from a lack of certain nutrients. "We will talk about vitamins Scurvy and Beriberi, which are substances that are preventative agents for these particular diseases ," Funk wrote in the study.

The idea that disease could arise from a lack of essential nutrients, not just from infection or toxins, was revolutionary, especially at a time when the germ theory of disease was dominant. This theory states that certain diseases originate from pathogenic microorganisms. However, Funk proposed that some vitamins should be present in the human diet and that even very small amounts could help prevent and treat disease.

In 1912, he published his study "Causes of Deficiency Diseases" in the Journal of State Medicine . In 1914, he wrote a book titled "Die Vitamine" on this subject. In the following years, amid the two world wars, Funk continued to research and frequently traveled between Europe and America.

Over time, other researchers found that Funk's original theory was not entirely accurate. Not all vitamins are amines. For example, vitamin D is synthesized when skin is exposed to ultraviolet light and is essentially a steroid hormone. This is why the "e" in "vitamine" was omitted to create the term "vitamin" as it is known today. Vitamins also do not only affect one disease as Funk initially suggested. For example, vitamin D deficiency is associated with many chronic diseases such as metabolic bone disorders, heart disease and diabetes.

Later, Funk researched animal hormones and the chemical properties of diseases such as cancer and diabetes. He also found better ways to commercialize drug production. Funk died in New York in 1967. For his contributions in the field of nutrition, he was posthumously awarded the Nutrition Hall of Fame award .