Vitamin B1- Anti beri-beri vitamin
Also known as: Thiamine
Important for: Nervous system,
muscles, heart function, healthy growth
The active principle of vitamin B1 was discovered in 1897
by Dutch physician and pathologist Christiaan Eijkman, who was researching the
causes of beriberi, a common and sometimes fatal disease that causes fatigue,
weakness and heart failure. Eijkman worked with chickens that were fed cooked
white rice and unpolished uncooked rice — and he discovered that diet had a
huge impact on which birds lived and which birds got sick and died. Later
research on Eijkman’s “anti-beriberi factor” by Polish-American scientist
Casimir Funk led to the coining of the word “vitamin” in 1912. By 1926, vitamin
B1 was isolated and given the name thiamine. Eijkman was awarded a Nobel Prize
in 1929 for his research around vitamin B1.
Vitamin B1 is a water soluble vitamin that is part of the vitamin
B complex group. Vitamin B1 plays an important role in energy metabolism and is
required for proper functioning of the nervous system and muscles, which
contribute to a functional cardiovascular system.
Thiamin (also known as vitamin B1 or aneurin) was the first
B vitamin discovered. Deficiency of the vitamin results in the disease
beri-beri, the first nutrient deficiency studied in Malaya in the beginning of
the 20th century.
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