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The vitamins were discovered only in the XX^th century, but the value of eating fruits, vegetables and other kinds of food were recognized already in ancient times. The word "vitamine" was introduced by Kazimierz Funk in 1912, from which, later, originated the term vitamin. It signified a group of compounds considered vital for life. As all those compounds were thought to have a nitrogen-containing component known as an amine, they got the name "vitamine" – vital amine. The "e" from the end of the word was dropped down in 1920, as a suggestion from Jack Cecil Drummond, when it was discovered that Vitamin C doesn't contain nitrogen, thus not all are amines.

The history
An example that fresh fruits, vegetables and other food were considered to maintain body's health already in ancient time, is that Egyptians for curing a patient from night blindness, an illness known now as a deficiency of vitamin A, feed him with liver. It was also observed that most illnesses from vitamin deficiency occurred during long ocean voyages, were the access to fresh fruits and vegetables was impossible.

During the 17th century Scottish surgeon James Lind discovered that in order to prevent scurvy^[1] one should eat citrus food, such as lemons and limes.

This theory was adopted by British Royal Navy in 1753, but was rejected by the Royal Navy's Arctic expeditions in the 19th century. They believed that to avoid scurvy it was enough to have a perfect hygiene and to practice regular exercise, rather than a diet with fresh fruits and vegetables. Thus the expedition continued to be overwhelmed by scurvy and other vitamin deficiency diseases. Later during the Antarctic expeditions by Robert Falcon Scott, it was thought that scurvy was caused by contaminated canned food.

Another scientist to be studied the effects of scurvy is the Russian surgeon Nikolai Lunin. In 1881 he fed mice with an artificial mixture of all the separate constituents of milk known at that time, namely the proteins, fats, carbohydrates, and salts. The mice that received the main constituents of the milk died, while the mice fed with natural milk developed normally. He made the following conclusion: "a natural food such as milk must therefore contain, besides these known principal ingredients, small quantities of unknown substances essential to life". But as other researches couldn't imitate his experiment they rejected his conclusion. Their experiment failed, because Lunin used table sugar (sucrose) while others used milk sugar (lactose), that contain a small amount of vitamin B, essential for life.

In the Orient the common food of the middle class was polished white rice and beriberi^[2], resulting from lack of vitamin B, was widespread.

Thus in 1884 a British trained medical doctor of the Japanese Navy, Takaki Kanehiro, observed that most cases of beriberi was among those crew that ate nothing but rice and not among those fed with rice along with Western-style diet. He concluded that beriberi was caused by the lack of proteins. To check that, he obtained the permission from Japanese navy to experiment on crews of two battleships. So the first crew was fed only white rice, while the second was fed a diet of rice, meat, fish and beans. Thus the group that ate only white rice registered 161 cases of beriberi and 25 deaths, while the others had only 14 cases of beriberi and no deaths. This experiment made Kanehiro and the Japanese Navy to come to the conclusion that the diet was essential for life and the cause of beriberi. To the same conclusion came Christiaan Eijkman in 1897. He fed some chickens with unpolished rice and others with polished and he discovered that feeding with unpolished rice rather than polished helped to prevent beriberi in the chickens. As a continuations of Ejikman's discovery Frederick Hopkins mentioned that some foods contains "accessory factors", in addition to proteins, carbohydrates, fats, etc., that a essential for the good function of the human body. In 1929 Frederick Hopkins and Christiaan Eijkman were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for their discovery of several vitamins.

In 1912 Polish biochemist Kazimierz Funk isolated a water-soluble complex of micronutrients from rice bran proposed the complex to be named "Vitamine". The first to extract this complex of micronutrients was a Japanese scientist Umetaro Suzuki, in 1910, and he named it "aberic acid". His discovery was published in a Japanese scientific journal but because of the mistake in this article, that didn't mention it was a newly discovered nutrient, his discovery didn't gain publicity.

Most vitamins generally cannot be synthesized by animals or humans, and if synthesized, the amounts are insufficient to meet body needs and must be obtained from the diet or from some synthetic source. For this reason, vitamins are called essential nutrients because they are essential for life and optimum well-being.

General facts about vitamins
Vitamins are essential for our normal health and development that our body doesn’t produce. However the amount of vitamins our body needs is small we should supply it with vitamins everyday, because without these vital substances we wouldn’t be able to survive.

The belief that the more vitamins we get the better is absolutely wrong, because for some vitamins taken in excess can be dangerous for us. This is true for fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K, because it's harder for the body to get rid of any excess of these vitamins through urine, which is the most common way to eliminate waste products. What we need is a balanced diet that includes healthy food, fresh fruits and vegetables to maintain our body healthy and to supply with necessary amount of vitamins.

Vitamins are not only necessary for our health and well-being, vitamins and minerals will prevent diseases associated with nutritional deficiencies such as scurvy, beriberi, pellagra and rickets, give us healthy bones and teeth, prevent us going blind, and from being prone to unexpected bleeding. Vitamins also protect our hearts from damage, and protect us against cancer. Recent research evidence also suggests that vitamin C and E combined in high doses helps reduce our risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.

There are thirteen different vitamins identified by nutritionists: A, eight B-complex vitamins, C, D, E, and K.

Vitamins were originally placed in categories based on their function in the body and were given letter names. Later, as their chemical structures were revealed, they were also given chemical names. Today, both naming conventions are used.

The vitamins are divided into two groups and are diverse in chemical structure and function. There are water-soluble, that means they are dissolved in water and fat-soluble vitamins that are dissolved in fat.

Water-soluble vitamins are 8 B vitamins and C vitamin, which are found in meat, fish, fruit, vegetables and wholegrains. They are transported around the body in water. Because the excess is passed through urine, your body can't store them. Food that contains these vitamins should be eaten every day. Water-soluble vitamins can be destroyed by cooking, so it is better to steam and grill rather than boil.

Fat-soluble vitamins are A, D, E and K vitamins which are found in meat and meat products, animal fat and vegetable oils, dairy products and fish. They are transported around the body in fat, and any excess is stored in the liver and fatty tissues. Thus you shouldn’t eat this kind of food every day.

How Vitamins Work
Proteins, carbohydrates, and fats are combined in the body with other substances to yield energy and build tissues. These chemical reactions are catalyzed, or accelerated, by enzymes produced from specific vitamins, and they take place in specific parts of the body.

As it was mentioned the water-soluble vitamins are absorbed by the intestine and transported by the circulatory system to the specific tissues and put into use. The B vitamins act as coenzymes, compounds that unite with a protein component called an apoenzyme to form an active enzyme. The enzyme then acts as a catalyst in the chemical reactions that transfer energy from the basic food elements to the body. It is not known whether vitamin C acts as a coenzyme.

An excess of water-soluble vitamins, small amounts are stored in body tissue, but the rest is excreted in urine. Because water-soluble vitamins are not stored in the body in appreciable amounts, a daily supply is essential to prevent depletion.

The function of the fat-soluble vitamins highly specialized. The intestine absorbs fat-soluble vitamins, and the lymph system transports these vitamins to the different parts of the body. Fat-soluble vitamins are involved in maintaining the structure of cell membranes. It is also believed that fat-soluble vitamins are responsible for the synthesis of certain enzymes.

The body can store larger amounts of fat-soluble vitamins than of water-soluble vitamins. The liver provides the chief storage tissue for vitamins A and D, while vitamin E is stored in body fat and to a lesser extent in reproductive organs. Relatively little vitamin K is stored. Excessive intake of fat-soluble vitamins, particularly vitamins A and D, can lead to toxic levels in the body.

Many vitamins work together to regulate several processes within the body. A lack of vitamins or a diet that does not provide adequate amounts of certain vitamins can upset the body's internal balance or block one or more metabolic reactions.

NOTES: 1) Scurvy (N.Lat. scorbutus) is a deficiency disease that results from insufficient intake of vitamin C, which is required for correct collagen synthesis in humans. The scientific name of vitamin C, ascorbic acid, is derived from the Latin name of scurvy, scorbutus. Scurvy leads to the formation of liver spots on the skin, spongy gums, and bleeding from all mucous membranes. The spots are most abundant on the thighs and legs, and a person with the ailment looks pale, feels depressed, and is partially immobilized. In advanced scurvy there are open, suppurating wounds and loss of teeth.
In infants, scurvy is sometimes referred to as Barlow's disease, named after Sir Thomas Barlow, a British physician who described it. (N.B. Barlow's disease may also refer to mitral valve prolapse.) Other eponyms include Moeller's disease and Cheadle's disease.

2) The origin of the word beriberi is from a Sinhalese phrase meaning "I cannot, I cannot", the word being doubled for emphasis.
Beriberi is caused by a lack of thiamine (vitamin B1). It is common in people whose diet consists mainly of polished white rice, which is very low in thiamine because the thiamine-bearing husk has been removed. It is also seen in chronic alcoholics with an inadequate diet, as well as being a rare side effect of gastric bypass surgery. If a baby is mainly fed on the milk of a mother who suffers from thiamine deficiency then that child may develop beriberi.
The disease has been seen traditionally in people in Asian countries (especially in the 19th century and before), due to those countries' reliance on white rice as a staple food. Beriberi is a nutritional disorder caused by deficiency of vitamin B charactarized by damage to nerves and heart; general symptoms include loss of appetite and feeling of lassitude.
Its symptoms include weight loss, emotional disturbances, impaired sensory perception (Wernicke's encephalopathy), weakness and pain in the limbs, and periods of irregular heart rate. Oedema (swelling of bodily tissues) is common. In advanced cases, the disease may cause heart failure and death. It may also increase the amount of lactic acid and pyruvic acid in the blood.

· Wet beriberi affects the heart; it is sometimes fatal, as it causes a combination of heart failure and weakening of the capillary walls, which causes the peripheral tissues to become edematous.

Dry beriberi causes wasting and partial paralysis resulting from damaged peripheral nerves. It is also referred to as endemic neuritis.
Treatment is with thiamine hydrochloride, either in tablet form or injection. A rapid and dramatic recovery within hours can be made when this is administered to patients with beriberi, and their health can be transformed within an hour of administration of the treatment. Thiamine occurs naturally in unrefined cereals and fresh foods, particularly fresh meat, legumes, green vegetables, fruit, and milk.