Christiaan Eijkman

Christiaan Eijkman (1858–1930) was a Dutch physician and pathologist whose experiments linked polished rice to beriberi in chickens, helping establish that dietary deficiencies can cause disease.

Beriberi: A disease caused by thiamine deficiency, affecting the nervous system or cardiovascular system. The human disease Eijkman investigated in the Dutch East Indies.
Thiamine: A water-soluble vitamin, also called vitamin B1, required for carbohydrate metabolism and nerve function. The missing nutrient that ultimately explained the disease pattern Eijkman observed.
Dutch East Indies: The former Dutch colonial territory that became Indonesia. Eijkman’s beriberi investigations took place within this colonial medical system.
Casimir Funk: A Polish-American biochemist who proposed the term “vitamine” for essential dietary factors. Funk’s vitamin concept built on evidence from deficiency diseases, including beriberi.
Polished rice: Rice grains with their bran and germ removed during milling. Feeding polished rice to chickens produced symptoms resembling beriberi.
Vitamin deficiency: A condition caused by an inadequate supply of one or more vitamins. Eijkman’s findings helped establish deficiency as a cause of disease.
Willem Einthoven: A Dutch physician and physiologist who developed the string galvanometer and won the 1924 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Einthoven succeeded Eijkman as director of the laboratory in Batavia.
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine: An annual international award recognizing discoveries in physiology or medicine. Eijkman shared the 1929 prize for discoveries concerning vitamins.
Rice bran: The hard outer layer removed from rice grains during milling. Restoring bran to the chickens’ diet reversed their symptoms.
Dietary fiber: Indigestible carbohydrate components of plant foods, including much of rice bran. The bran’s protective effect was initially attributed to its physical properties, not a vitamin.

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