He first came to what was then called Batavia in 1883 as a military doctor and stayed until 1885. He returned in 1888, this time as a medical researcher. He was the first director of the Javanese Medical School, the precursor to the University of Indonesia, in Batavia.

According to the nobel.org website, Eijkman discovered that the real cause of beriberi,  a disease that causes people to lose feeling in their legs and begin to have trouble walking, was a deficiency in a vital substance in the staple food rice. The substance is located in the so-called “silver skin” or pericarpium  of the rice.

The discovery in Batavia by Eijkman led to the concept of vitamins. The substance that Eijkman had found was vitamin B1 or thiamine. But the word “vitamin” was not in use until the early 20th century. The substance Eijkman had found in rice was named “vital amine” by Casimir Funk, a Polish-born biochemist, in 1912. Scientists later shortened this to “vitamin”. 

For his remarkable research into beriberi disease in Indonesia that led to the discovery of vitamins, Eijkman was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1929.

Vitamins are vital for the growth of our bodies and our immune system.

How many types of vitamins are there? How we can get them?

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