Nutrition Consultant, Cambridge, UK. christinaclewes @ btinternet.com
Ann Nutr Metab. 2012;61(3):224-30. doi: 10.1159/000343111. Epub 2012 Nov 26.
The first observation of a pigment in milk with yellow-green fluorescence can be traced to the English chemist Alexander Wynter Blyth in 1872, but it was not until the early 1930s that the substance was characterized as riboflavin. Interest in accessory food factors began in the latter half of the 19th century with the discovery of the first vitamin, thiamin. Thiamin was water soluble and given the name vitamin B(1). However, researchers realized that there were one or more additional water-soluble factors and these were called the vitamin B-2 complex. The search to identify these accessory food factors in milk, whole wheat, yeast, and liver began in the early 1900s. As there is no classical nutritional disease attributable to riboflavin deficiency, it was the growth-stimulating properties of the food extracts given to young rats that provided the tool with which to investigate and eventually extract riboflavin. Riboflavin was the second vitamin to be isolated and the first from the vitamin B-2 complex; the essential nature of the vitamin as a food constituent for man was shown in 1939.
1872 年，英国化学家亚历山大·温特·布莱思首次观察到牛奶中带有黄绿光的色素，但直到 20 世纪 30 年代，该物质才被确认为核黄素。人们对辅助食品因素的兴趣始于 19 世纪后半叶，当时发现了第一种维生素——硫胺素。硫胺素可溶于水，被命名为维生素 B(1)。然而，研究人员意识到还有一个或多个额外的水溶性因素，这些因素被称为维生素 B-2 复合物。从 20 世纪初开始，人们就在牛奶、全麦、酵母和肝脏中寻找这些辅助食品因素。由于没有经典的营养缺乏疾病可归因于核黄素缺乏，因此正是这些给幼鼠喂食的食物提取物的生长刺激特性为研究并最终提取核黄素提供了工具。核黄素是第二种被分离出来的维生素，也是维生素 B-2 复合物中的第一种；1939 年，核黄素作为人类食物成分的必需性质得到了证明。
