The term vitamin was derived from ‘vitamine,’ a compound word coined in 1912 by the Polish biochemist Kazimierz Funk, when working at the Lister Institute Of Preventive Medicine (who also invented Listerine, and in order to sell Listerine, invented Halitosis). Funk read an article by Christiaan Eijkman that indicated people who ate brown rice rather than white rice were less prone to Beriberi, and attempted to isolate the chemical responsible. Ho isolated Thiamine, later known as vitamin B1, in 1912. The name is derived from vital and amine, because it was though at the time that the organic micronutrient compounds that prevent Beriberi, Pellagra and similar dietary-deficiency diseases might be chemical amines. This proved incorrect to some degree, as not all micronutrients were nitrogen bearing amines, and the word was shortened to vitamin.
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