Coined "vitamine" and proposed the deficiency disease theory
Casimir Funk was trying to isolate the anti-beriberi factor from rice bran. He believed he had found an amine (a nitrogen-containing compound) that was vital for life. He combined "vital" and "amine" to coin "vitamine." Although his specific compound was not the right one (and many vitamins turned out not to be amines at all — the "e" was dropped later), the concept stuck. In his 1912 paper, Funk proposed that beriberi, scurvy, pellagra, and rickets were all caused by deficiencies of different "vitamines." Over the next 36 years, researchers would identify all 13 vitamins we recognize today.
The Etiology of the Deficiency Diseases
1912
Created unifying theory of deficiency diseases; gave vitamins their name