- Person
- Casimir Funk
- Lived
- 1884–1967
- Field
- Biochemistry
- From
- Polish-American
The story
When the First World War broke out, Casimir Funk, the Warsaw-born Jewish biochemist who had named the vitamins, decided to leave London for the United States. In 1915 he accepted a post at the Harriman Research Laboratory in New York, only to find on arrival that it had neither funding nor equipment. The worry of supporting his family made him seriously ill for a time.
He recovered and rebuilt his career. In 1916 he joined the Calco Company in Bound Brook, New Jersey, and in 1917 the pharmaceutical firm Metz and Company in New York, while also holding a post at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons from 1918 to 1923. He was determined to turn the science of vitamins into practical products that could prevent disease.
With his collaborator H. E. Dubin, who also translated his book Die Vitamine into English, Funk produced the first cod liver oil vitamin concentrate, sold as Oscodal. Generations of children had been made to swallow spoonfuls of cod liver oil. Oscodal concentrated vitamins A and D, the nutrients in cod liver oil that protect against night blindness and rickets, into a convenient form. The name was built from os, meaning bone, the letters for vitamins D and A, and L for lozenge. According to a 2013 article in the Australasian Medical Journal, it was the first vitamin preparation to be accepted by the American Medical Association as an ethical product.
Funk became a US citizen in 1920. He later worked for the U.S. Vitamin Corporation, and the Australasian Medical Journal credits him with a central role in founding the vitamin industry. He also warned that only small amounts of vitamins were needed. During the vitamin craze that followed his discoveries, many people overlooked that point, even though too much of some vitamins, including A and D, can be toxic.
Funk's careful approach, a measured dose of a specific vitamin to prevent a specific disease, remains the basis of responsible supplementation. Products like Oscodal helped show doctors that vitamins could be delivered reliably as medicine.
Why it matters
Oscodal helped pioneer the reliable, standardised vitamin supplements that doctors now use to prevent deficiency diseases such as rickets.
About Casimir Funk
Warsaw-born biochemist of Jewish descent who coined the word ‘vitamine’ in 1912 and argued that beriberi, scurvy, pellagra and rickets were deficiency diseases.
More about Casimir Funk
- Casimir Funk discovered the idea of vitaminsIn 1912 the Warsaw-born biochemist Casimir Funk coined the word "vitamine" and proposed that missing nutrients cause diseases such as beriberi, scurvy, pellagra and rickets.
- Casimir Funk's book Die Vitamine launched a research boomCasimir Funk's 1914 book Die Vitamine drew scientists into the new field, and within 35 years of his work all 13 known vitamins had been discovered.
- Casimir Funk linked pellagra to how corn was milledCasimir Funk was an early investigator of pellagra and suggested that a change in how corn was milled lay behind outbreaks, an idea largely ignored at the time.
- Casimir Funk improved insulin production in WarsawIn 1923, with Rockefeller Foundation support, Casimir Funk returned to Poland to head biochemistry at the State Institute of Hygiene, where he improved the quality of insulin it produced.
- Casimir Funk warned of hidden vitamin shortagesIn his 1936 book Vitamin and Mineral Therapy, Casimir Funk warned that mild vitamin shortages could weaken the body's resistance to infection long before obvious disease appeared.
Sources
- Vitamins are more Funky than Casimir thought Australasian Medical Journal (PubMed Central)
- Casimir Funk Encyclopedia.com
Another act of tikkun olam. This is part of tikkun olam, the Jewish idea of repairing the world, and every one of us can add to it.