Casimir Funk (Polish: Kazimierz Funk[kaˈʑimjɛʂˈfuŋk]; February 23, 1884 – November 19, 1967) was a Polish biochemist generally credited with being among the first to formulate the concept of vitamins after publishing a landmark medical writing in 1912. He highlighted these "vital amines" (or "vitamines") as critical in fighting significant diseases such as pellagra and rickets, and his analysis influenced a major shift in scientific thinking.[4] His scientific work involved research in Poland, France and the United Kingdom. In 1920, he became a citizen of the United States where he continued his work.
Dr. Casimir Funk at his research laboratory in New York City in 1953.
After reading an article by Christiaan Eijkman that indicated that persons who ate brown rice were less vulnerable to beri-beri than those who ate only the fully milled product, Funk tried to isolate the substance responsible, and he succeeded. Because that substance contained an amine group, he called it "vitamine". It was later to be known as vitamin B3 (niacin), although he thought it would be thiamine (vitamin B1) and described it as "anti-beri-beri-factor".[citation needed]
In 1911, he published his first paper in English, on dihydroxyphenylalanine. Funk was sure more than one substance like Vitamin B1 existed, and in his 1912 article for the Journal of State Medicine, he proposed the existence of at least four vitamins: one preventing beriberi ("antiberiberi"); one preventing scurvy ("antiscorbutic"); one preventing pellagra ("antipellagric"); and one preventing rickets ("antirachitic"). From there, Funk published a book, The Vitamines, in 1912, and later that year received a Beit Fellowship to continue his research.[7]
Funk proposed the hypothesis that other diseases, such as rickets, pellagra, coeliac disease, and scurvy could also be cured by vitamins.[8] Funk was an early investigator of the problem of pellagra. He suggested that a change in the method of milling corn was responsible for the outbreak of pellagra,[9] but no attention was paid to his article on this subject.[10]
The "e" at the end of "vitamine" was later removed, when it was realized that vitamins need not be nitrogen-containing amines. He postulated the existence of other essential nutrients, which became known as vitamins B1, B2, C, and D. In 1936, he determined the molecular structure of thiamine, though he was not the first to isolate it. Funk also conducted research into hormones, diabetes, peptic ulcers, and the biochemistry of cancer.[2]
From 1923 to 1927 Funk was the head of the National Institute of Hygiene in Poland.[11] In 1940, after returning to the United States, he became president of the Funk Foundation for Medical Research. He spent his last years studying the causes of neoplasms.[2]
Legacy
Funk's academic career is noted to have included serving at the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine within London, England and the Pasteur Institute within Paris, France while he additionally worked with commercial firms such as the U.S. Vitamin & Pharmaceutical Corp. Upon his death, the American publication Time highlighted both Funk and Elmer Verner McCollum, the latter being known for his discovery of Vitamin A and other efforts, as having significant legacies "in everyday importance" for medicine, with the news organization lauding Funk as a "pioneer". Time additionally commented positively upon Funk's personal character as a "research scientist [who] focused his intense curiosity on other fields" given his status.[3] A medical textbook distributed in 1997 by Taylor & Francis stated that Funk's 1912 release of his "landmark publication" in vitamins had internationally created a "theory [that] provided a new concept for interpreting diet-related events."[4]
Outside of vitamin-related research, Funk's career history has been described as also having significantly extended humanity's “knowledge of sex hormones."[3] A retrospective analysis by the British publication The Independent in 2024 stated that Funk's discoveries as an overall body of work, especially in terms of nutrition, "has helped the health of many people and led to the cures of several life-threatening diseases." A member of Funk's family, as well, has accepted a Nutrition Hall of Fame award given to the biochemist posthumously.[6]
A Google Doodle commemorated Funk's 140th birthday on February 23rd of 2024 in tandem with his family's estate and its various efforts. This included working with Erik Funk, Casimir Funk's grandson, who praised the company's actions.[6]
^Funk, Casimir (1912). "The etiology of the deficiency diseases. Beri-beri, polyneuritis in birds, epidemic dropsy, scurvy, experimental scurvy in animals, infantile scurvy, ship beri-beri, pellagra". Journal of State Medicine. 20: 341–68.
^"Awards". Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America. May 2022. Retrieved 23 February 2024.
Further reading
Harow, Benjamin (1955). Casimir Funk: Pioneer in Vitamins and Hormones. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company. p. 209.
Piro, Anna; Tagarelli, Giuseppe; Lagonia, Paolo; Tagarelli, Antonio; Quattrone, Aldo (1 January 2010). "Casimir Funk: His Discovery of the Vitamins and Their Deficiency Disorders". Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism. 57 (2): 85–88. doi:10.1159/000319165. PMID20805686. S2CID9619130.
Funk, Casimir (2008). Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Vol. 5. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons. pp. 208–9.
External links
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