Vitamin B

History of the discovery

The history of the group B vitamins discovery started at the end of the XIX century with a studying of the strange disease, which was very common in South-East Asia and was called “Beri-beri”.

“Beri-beri” is Indian for «sheep». The walk of the diseased slightly resembled the one of the sheep. Those who suffered from it felt weakness in their legs, calf muscles pain. Eventually arms and legs get paralyzed, severe cases without proper treatment usually caused death.

Like plague and cholera «Ber-beri» was considered an infection for a long time, so the searching for the pathogen went on. Young Dutch doctor Ejikman, who was working on Yava island as a main doctor of the prison hospitals, was doing experiments on hens in order to solve the “Beri-beri” puzzle. He was feeding them with rice leftovers from the prison kitchen. Eventually, more and more hens got stroked with a leg paralyze. These strange disease resembled human cases of “Ber-beri”.Ejikman had decided that some pathogen from the rice samples is a cause of disease. Later it became clear that he was wrong, so he suggested that the rice itself contents some elements which cause the disease. He found out that the disease is caused by white rice, while red rice bring no damage, and moreover, it cured the infected hens wnen was being fed to them. Ejikman’s guess was that rice contents some poisonous element while the husk contains the cure. However, neither poison no antidote were found, and the mystery remained unsolved for a while.

Later, in 1911 Polish scientist Kasimir Funk isolated some crystallized matter from the rice brans which was curing the doves infected by “Beri-beri”. The rice grains didn’t, however, contained the matter.

The preparation, isolated by Funk, was not a clear tiamin. It was a mix with a mere 0,1% of vitamin B in it. It took another 25 years of hard work before the scientists could isolate the vitamin B and determine its chemical structure.

To bring you the most good, the b vitamins need each other. In the products they are commonly found together, but because the body is not well keeps them "in reserve", it is important to get them daily with food or in the form of pharmaceutical preparations. B vitamins strengthen the nervous and endocrine systems, as well as have the reputation of being "antistressor" and "ionization". And regular use of vitamins of this group slow down the aging process!

As we noted, individual b vitamins are very interdependent, so nutritionists usually recommend taking them in the complex.