Vitamin B1 (also known as thiamine) is a water soluble vitamin and is part of the B complex vitamins (a group of eight B vitamins that were initially thought to be the singular vitamin B). The discovery of vitamin B1 is heavily linked with a condition called beriberi. During the late nineteenth century a beriberi epidemic broke out in Asia. This prompted increased research into both the cause of beriberi and a cure. The Dutch physician Christiaan Eijkman was the first person to discover the link between vitamin B1 and beriberi when he realised that feeding chickens unpolished (brown) rice … [Read more...]
What Are B Vitamins?
The B vitamins (also known as the B complex vitamins) are a group of eight water soluble vitamins. They all play an important role in cell metabolism (the process which allows your body's cells to get energy and nutrients from the food you eat) and were initially thought to be a singular B vitamin. Today I am going to be discussing the B vitamin group in greater detail. The B vitamins were initially discovered by Elmer V. McCollum and his team of researchers who were performing nutritional studies on rats. Between 1912 and 1914 these studies had led to the discovery of vitamin A – the … [Read more...]