I talked about the relationship between the new crown and vitamin D last week. Today, I will introduce a little knowledge by the way. I believe everyone is familiar with vitamins A, B, C, D, E, etc. If you count down the next member, you will go directly to vitamin D. K, where do the F, G, H, I, and J in the middle go?
In 1912, Polish biochemist Casimir Funk successfully extracted and isolated amines that could treat beriberi and named it a vitamin. I mentioned a few days ago that vitamin was first written as vitamin, which is Latin for life (vita) + amine (amine), which means the amines needed for life. Fink named vitamin B in view of the amine he found to prevent beriberi (Beriberi, Sinhalese, meaning weak), and he extracted the famous vitamin B1, which is the first purified vitamin in human history.
Discovered that vitamin B precedes vitamin A
Today we know that B1 is an important coenzyme in the human body’s response. The lack of it will affect the aerobic decomposition of sugar in the body, resulting in the inability of nerve tissue to obtain enough energy and chronic inflammation. Fink also predicted that the diseases caused by a single food are related to the lack of vitamins. He even reserved places for some vitamins that have not yet been discovered. For example, oranges, tangerines, lemons and other fruits have been used for a long time to prevent scurvy. It was certain that it contained an unknown vitamin, so he took the letter from Scurvy, gave this vitamin in advance, and changed its name to vitamin C. It was not until about 20 years later that vitamin C was officially discovered by others and filled in for many years. The pit, that is to say, in the long history of the world, vitamin C appeared less than 100 years ago.
After the discovery of vitamin B, American biologist Elmer Verner McCollum extracted another substance in 1914. Humans and animals lack this substance and are prone to dry eye. Before him, many German scholars had studied this disease, so Macklem named the substance after the first letter of dry eye (Augendarre) in German, called Vitamin A. He also pointed out that vitamin A is not an amine. There are more than amines in it, so people later removed the e and renamed it Vitamin. Vitamins are nutrients composed of organic compounds and are important nutrients for sustaining life. There are two kinds of fat-soluble and water-soluble. They are the three major nutrients, namely protein, fat and carbohydrates, and another trace substance that is very important to physiological functions in the body. , once the deficiency will cause some diseases, the human body cannot synthesize vitamins by itself, or the synthetic amount cannot meet the needs, and must be absorbed from the outside world.
The first two vitamins extracted by human beings, the first one is called B, the last one is called A, and the place for C is reserved for the latter. I also mentioned last week that in 1922, Macklem proved that cod liver oil contains another kind of vital essence for life. key substance, named vitamin D. People decided that if new vitamins were discovered in the future, they would go down the alphabet A to Z, but when it came to F after vitamin E, something went wrong.
Because vitamin F was separated from vitamin B, it was renamed as vitamin B1, and B is the collective name of the B family. However, the name vitamin F was used again later as the name of an essential fatty acid. With the deepening of research, people realized that essential fatty acids are actually components of fat, and fat is not a vitamin, so this fatty acid is Excluded from the list of vitamins, the name vitamin F has been scrapped again, until today. However, many people on the Internet equate vitamin F with essential fatty acids such as Omega-3. The reason for this may be that the first letter of fatty acid in English happens to be F. The fate of vitamin G is the same. Originally, there was a substance called vitamin G, but since it can be separated from vitamin B, it was renamed vitamin B2; there was also vitamin H, and it was later called vitamin B7; vitamin I was not used, vitamin J was found to be similar to vitamin G and was also classified as vitamin B2.
What’s up with vitamin K? In 1934, Danish scientist Henrik Dam discovered a substance that can promote blood coagulation, and named it vitamin K with the Danish word “coagulation” (Koagulation). The last letter of the alphabet. It was not until 1978 that the International Union of Nutritional Sciences (IUNS) determined the naming principle, and today the members are counted, and ABCDEK performs its duties.
The most complicated and confusing is the big family B. After the discovery of B1 and B2, people have discovered B3, B5, B6, B7… Vitamins are named after their functions rather than their structure. Not only are they different in chemical structure, but substances that can be called vitamins include amines, Acids and aldehydes have different chemical structures and properties, and some of them are not very related in function. Later, some of them followed the trend and were named by more accustomed names. For example, pantothenic acid is actually vitamin B5, and folic acid is vitamin B9. B4, B8, B10, and B11 are also lacking in the B group of vitamins, but for similar reasons: in the historical process of vitamin research, some vitamins such as F, G, H, I, and J are derived from other existing vitamins. Some of them did not meet the definition of vitamins and were fired.
Although it is confusing, no matter what, most people just need to remember that in mainstream nutrition, there are 13 kinds of vitamins, namely A, C, D, E, K and 8 kinds of B, so there is no need to think too complicated. It is also unnecessary to make it too complicated. For an average healthy person, as long as they have a balanced diet, they can basically obtain the necessary vitamins, and there is no need for additional supplements. However, if you have a partial eclipse, such as only eating meat and not eating vegetables, Or if you often eat fried or heavy-flavored foods, but do not eat fruits, you can add some B vitamins or vitamin C to regulate your body.
Written by: Feng Zhaoning, Senior Media Person
Column name: sunny