Casimir Funk

…prepared by the Polish biochemist Casimir Funk, who recognized that it belonged to a new class of essential foods called vitamins. Thiamin was isolated in 1926 and its chemical structure determined in 1936. The chemical structures of the other vitamins were determined prior to 1940.

…factors or substances—a Polish scientist, Casimir Funk, demonstrated that polyneuritis produced in pigeons fed on polished rice could be cured by supplementing the birds’ diet with a concentrate made from rice bran, a component of the outer husk that was removed from rice during polishing. Funk proposed that the polyneuritis…

…these substances by Polish biochemist Casimir Funk in the belief that they were amines, certain compounds derived from ammonia. In due course, when it was realized that they were not amines, the term was altered to vitamin.

In 1912 Casimir Funk demonstrated that beriberi-like symptoms induced in pigeons could be cured by feeding them white rice that was supplemented with a concentrate made from rice polishings. Following this discovery he proposed that this, as well as several other conditions, were due to diets that…