An Interesting Look Into the Evolution of Vitamins

By Lydia Greyson

Vitamin C was the first to be made artificially and was ultimately identified by Hungarian scientist who found that it is stored in human adrenal glands, and later won a Nobel prize. C. King and W. A. Waugh worked with lemons to find the same chemical; while Harriet Chick at the Lister Institute isolated the vitamin in other fruits and vegetables.

Vitamin A: In 1913, Yale University scientists Lafayette Mendel and Thomas discovered what was termed a growth promoter in butters that improved the development of a rat's body. Named 'fat-soluble Vitamin A,' it was the first substance isolated as a vitamin. Letters were used to name the vitamins, since their chemical characteristics were unknown at that time. Vitamin D is another important vitamin to discuss. Edward Mellanby discovered Vitamin D in 1922 through the realization that enriched milk could effectively prevent the properties of rickets from occurring. This disease was plaguing children by softening the bones in their legs.

Vitamin E: Herbert Evans and Katherine Bishop at the University of California studied rats and found that when they were raised on whole milk, they could not breed, in the same year as Vitamin D was discovered, 1922. Then it was discovered that fat-soluble Vitamin E, first found in wheat and green leaves - could be used to solve the rat breeding problem.

Vitamin K: The blood clotting properties of Vitamin K were discovered by Dane Henrik Dam in the late 1920s. He later earned a Nobel Prize in 1943 for Physiology and Medicine. The same prize went to an American scientist for demonstrating how Henrik Dam's discovery worked chemically.Vitamins are an integral part of human health and shouldn't be overlooked.

Despite the fact that Dr. Lind's "Treatise on the Scurvy" was published in 1753, it was not acted upon until very nearly 1800. As the sailors began to include citrus fruit in their diets - which we now know contains a high concentration of Vitamin C - that the scurvy epidemic in Britain began to subside. After this, other nations began to follow suit by recognizing the positive effects of citrus fruit for the diet.

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