Funk, Casimir

Name:
Funk, Casimir
Detailed information:
(1884–1948). Born in Poland and later becoming an American citizen, Funk in 1911 isolated a food factor, extracted from rice hulls, that he found to be a cure for a disease caused by malnutrition (beri-beri). Believing this to be an amine compound essential to life, he coined the name vitamine, from which the final e was later dropped. The various types and functions of vitamins were not differentiated until some years later as a result of the work of McCollum, Szent-Gyorgi, R. J. Williams, and others.