It has been more than a hundred years since vitamins entered the life of almost every inhabitant of the planet. However, few people know that only 13 combinations of substances are classified as such. The rest are considered only their likeness. Why are synthesized vitamins dangerous for the body? What is the history of the discovery of vitamins and their significance?
What are vitamins?
So, what are vitamins? Where does the story of the discovery of vitamins originate from? Why are they necessary for full life support?
Unlike carbohydrates, amino acids and polyunsaturated fatty acids, vitamins have no energy value for the body, but contribute to the normalization of metabolism. The way they enter the body is by eating, supplementing, and sunbathing. They are used to neutralize the imbalance or lack of useful trace elements. Their main functions are: assistance to colienzymes, participation in the regulation of metabolism, preventing the emergence of unstable radicals.
The history of the discovery of vitamins has shown that these substances are different in their chemical composition. But, tounfortunately, they are not able to be produced by the body on their own in the right amount.
What is the role of vitamins
Every vitamin is unique in its own way and cannot be replaced. Everything is explained by a specific set of functions that are inherent in only one single substance. Therefore, if the body feels a lack of a certain vitamin, there are obvious consequences: vitamin deficiency, metabolic disorders, disease.
Therefore, it is important to eat right, varied and rich, including in your diet every day at least a minimum of foods enriched with useful trace elements.
For example, vitamins belonging to the B group affect the proper functioning of the nervous system, support the immune system, help the body replace and renew cells in a timely manner.
But don't be scared if you notice that your food is not rich enough in vitamins. Most of today's people are deficient. To replenish the desired balance, you should not only eat right, but also use complex vitamin preparations.
How people came to vitamins
Imagine, until the end of the 19th century, many people did not even know about such a thing as vitamins. They not only suffered from a lack of nutrients, but also became seriously ill, and often died. How was the discovery of vitamins? Let's briefly try to talk about the work of doctors, about their observations and discoveries in this area.
The most common diseases of the pre-vitamin eras were:
- "Beriberi" - an ailment that struck the inhabitants of the South-East,South Asia, where the main source of food was polished, processed rice.
- Scurvy is a disease that has claimed the lives of thousands of sailors.
- Rickets, which previously affected not only children, but also adults.
People died whole families, the ships did not return from sailing due to the death of all crew members.
This continued until 1880. Until the moment when N. I. Lunin came to the conclusion that many food products contain substances that are vital for humans. Moreover, these substances are irreplaceable.
Scurvy - a disease of ancient sailors
The history of the discovery of vitamins contains numerous facts pointing to millions of losses. The cause of death was scurvy. At that time, this disease was one of the most terrible and deadly. No one even thought that the fault was the wrong diet and lack of vitamin C.
According to approximate estimates of historians, scurvy has claimed more than a million sailors during the time of geographical discoveries. A typical example is the expedition to India, which was supervised by Vasco de Gama: of the 160 members of the team, most of them fell ill and died.
J. Cook became the first traveler to return with the same command staff as he had departed from the pier. Why didn't the members of his crew suffer the fate of the many? J. Cook introduced sauerkraut into their daily diet. He followed the example of James Lind.
Since 1795 plant foods, lemons, oranges and other citrus fruits(a source of vitamin C), have become a mandatory part of the "food basket" of sailors.
We came to the truth through experience
Few people know what secret the history of the discovery of vitamins keeps. Briefly, we can say this: trying to find a way to salvation, scientific doctors experimented on people. One thing pleases: they were harmless enough, but far from humane from the point of view of modern morality and morality.
Scottish doctor J. Lind became famous for experiments on people in 1747.
But he did not come to this of his own free will. He was forced by circumstances: an epidemic of scurvy broke out on the ship on which he served. Trying to find a way out of the current situation, Lind chose two dozen sick sailors, dividing them into several groups. Based on the division carried out, treatment was carried out. The first group was served cider along with the usual food, the second - sea water, the third - vinegar, the fourth - citrus fruits. The last group are the only survivors of all 20 people.
However, the human sacrifice was not in vain. Thanks to the published results of the experiment (treatise "Treatment of scurvy"), the value of citrus fruits for the neutralization of scurvy has been proven.
The emergence of the term
The history of the discovery of vitamins briefly tells about the origins of the term "Vitamin" itself.
It is believed that the progenitor is K. Funk, who isolated vitamin B1 in a crystalline form. After all, it was he who gave his drug the name vitamine.
Further, D. Drummond took the baton of transformations in the field of the “vitamin” concept, suggesting that it would be inappropriate to call all microelements a word containing the letter “e”. Explaining this by saying that not all of them contain amino acid.
That's how vitamins got our usual name "vitamins". It consists of two Latin words: "vita" and "amines". The first means "life", the second includes the name of the nitrogenous compounds of the amino group.
It was only in 1912 that the word “vitamin” came into common use. Literally, it means "a substance necessary for life."
History of the discovery of vitamins: origins
Nikolai Lunin was one of the first to think about the role of substances derived from food. The scientific community of that time accepted the Russian doctor's hypothesis with hostility, it was not taken seriously.
However, the fact of the need for a certain kind of mineral compounds was first discovered by none other than Lunin. The discovery of vitamins, their indispensability by other substances, he revealed empirically (at that time vitamins did not yet have their modern name). The test subjects were mice. The diet of some consisted of natural milk, while others consisted of artificial (milk components: fat, sugar, s alts, casein). Animals belonging to the second group fell ill and died suddenly.
Based on this, N. I. Lunin concluded that "… milk, in addition to casein, fat, milk sugar and s alts, contains other substances that are indispensable for nutrition."
The topic raised by a biochemist from the University of Tartu interested K. A. Sosina. He conducted experiments and came to the same conclusion as Nikolai Ivanovich.
Subsequently, Lunin's theories were reflected, confirmed and further developed in the works of foreign and domestic scientists.
Discovering the causes of the "take-take" disease
Further, the history of the doctrine of vitamins will continue with the work of the Japanese doctor Takaki. In 1884, he spoke about the beriberi disease that was afflicting Japanese residents. The origins of the disease were found years later. In 1897, the Irish doctor Christian Aikman came to the conclusion that by polishing rice, people deprive themselves of the necessary nutrients that are part of the upper layers of unrefined grains.
After a long 40 years (in 1936), thiamine was synthesized, the lack of which became the cause of "take-take". Scientists also did not immediately come to what “thiamine” is. The history of the discovery of B vitamins began with the isolation of the "amine of life" from rice grains (otherwise vitaminine or vitamine). It happened in 1911-1912. Between 1920 and 1934, scientists derived its chemical formula and named it "aneirin".
Discovery of vitamins A, H
If we consider such a topic as the history of the discovery of vitamins, we can see that the study took place slowly but continuously.
For example, avitaminosis A began to be studied in detail only from the 19th century. Stepp (Stepp) identified a growth motivator that is part of fat. It happened in 1909. And already in 1913McColler and Denis isolated "factor A", years later (1916) it was renamed "vitamin A".
The study of vitamin H dates back to 1901, when Wilders discovered a substance that promotes the growth of yeast. He suggested giving it the name "bios". In 1927, ovidin was isolated and called "factor X" or "vitamin H". This vitamin inhibited the action of a substance contained in some foods. In 1935, biotin was crystallized from egg yolk by Kegl.
Vitamins C, E
After Lind's experiments on sailors, no one thought for a century why a person gets scurvy. The history of the emergence of vitamins, or rather the history of the study of their role, was further developed only at the end of the 19th century. V. V. Pashutin found out that the illness of sailors arose due to the absence of a certain substance in the food. In 1912, thanks to food experiments conducted on guinea pigs, Holst and Fröhlich learned that the appearance of scurvy was prevented by a substance that after 7 years became known as vitamin C. 1928 was marked by the derivation of its chemical formula, as a result of which ascorbic acid was synthesized.
The role and importance of vitamin E began to be studied the latest. Although it is he who plays a decisive role in the reproductive processes. The study of this fact began only in 1922. It was experimentally revealed that if fat was excluded from the diet of experimental rats, then the embryo died in the womb. This discovery was made by Evans. The first known drugs belonging to the group of vitamins E were extracted from the oil of sprouts. The drug wasnamed alpha- and beta-tocopherol, this event occurred in 1936. Two years later, Carrer carried out its biosynthesis.
Discovery of B vitamins
In 1913, the study of riboflavin and nicotinic acid began. It was this year that was marked by the discovery of Osborn and Mendel, who proved that milk contains a substance that promotes the growth of animals. In 1938, the formula of this substance was revealed, on the basis of which its synthesis was carried out. This is how lactoflavin was discovered and synthesized, now riboflavin, also known as vitamin B2.
Nicotinic acid was isolated from rice grains by Funk. However, his study stopped there. It was only in 1926 that the anti-pellagric factor was discovered, later called nicotinic acid (vitamin B3).
Vitamin B9 was isolated as a fraction from spinach leaves in the 1930s by Mitchell and Snell. The Second World War slowed down the discovery of vitamins. Briefly, further research on vitamin B9 (folic acid) can be characterized as rapidly developing. Immediately after the war (in 1945) it was synthesized. This happened through the release of pteroylglutamic acid from yeast and liver.
In 1933, the chemical composition of pantothenic acid (vitamin B5) was deciphered. And in 1935, Goldberg's conclusions about the causes of pellagra in rats were refuted. It turns out that the disease arose due to the lack of pyrodoxine, or vitamin B6.
The most recently isolated B vitamin is cobalamin, or B12. Extraction of antianemic factor from the liverhappened only in 1948.
Trial and error: discovery of vitamin D
The history of the discovery of vitamin D is marked by the destruction of pre-existing scientific discoveries. Elmer McCollum tried to clarify his own writings about vitamin A. Trying to refute the conclusions made by veterinarian Edward Mellanby, he conducted an experiment on dogs. He gave fish oil to animals with rickets, from which vitamin A was removed. His absence did not affect the recovery of the pets - they were still cured.
Vitamin D can be obtained not only from food, but also thanks to the sun's rays. This was proved by A. F. Hess in 1923.
In the same year, the artificial enrichment of fatty foods with calciferol began. Ultraviolet irradiation is practiced in the US to this day.
The significance of Casimir Funk in the study of vitamins
Following the discovery of the factors preventing the occurrence of beriberi disease, research on vitamins followed. Not the last role in this was played by Casimir Funk. The history of the study of vitamins says that he created a preparation consisting of a mixture of water-soluble substances, different in chemical nature, but similar in the presence of nitrogen in them.
Thanks to Funk, the world saw such a scientific term as beriberi. He not only brought it out, but also revealed ways to overcome it and prevent it. He came to the conclusion that vitamins are part of certain enzymes, which makes them easier to digest. Funk was among the first to develop a system of correct, balancednutrition, indicating the daily intake of essential vitamins.
Casimir Funk created some chemical analogs of vitamins found in natural products. However, now people's fascination with these analogues is frightening. Over the past half century, the number of oncological, allergic, cardiovascular and other diseases has increased. Some scientists see the reason for the rapid spread of these diseases in the use of synthesized vitamins.
