The Spread And Application Of Vitamins In Modern China(1915-1949)

Traditional Chinese medicine believes that the human body is a part of nature,and advocates that people’s clothing,food,shelter and transportation should be adapted to the heaven and earth,nature.The value of nutrition for human body had been paid attention by doctors in ancient times of our country,and food is the main way of supplementing nutrition.After the nutrition in food is absorbed by the human body,it can not only maintain people’s normal activities,but also strengthen the body.Therefore,traditional Chinese medicine emphasizes the concept of "medicine and food having the same origin," constantly exploring and utilizing the nutritional value of food to regulate the internal organs,thereby achieving the goal of prolonging life.In modern times,with the opening of the country,new nutrition knowledge derived from Western natural sciences has emerged one after another.It differs from the traditional Chinese medicine’s concept of nutrition,the new nutrition believes that the essential nutrients for the human body mainly consist of substances such as proteins,fats,carbohydrates,water,minerals,and vitamins,which provide energy for people’s daily activities after entering the body.This study takes vitamins as the object of investigation,and discusses the course of vitamin discovery and its mode of dissemination and application in modern China.The discovery of vitamins began in the late 19 th century,when foreign researchers noticed that people in white-rice-eating Asia were prone to beriberi,a disease that usually involves swollen legs,difficulty walking,and paralysis.After several experiments,researchers found that rice husks contained a substance that treated beriberi(now known as vitamin B1).Polish scientist Funk named it “vitamines” based on previous studies.The vitamins were introduced into our country in the 1910 s,and after it was recognized in small areas such as biology,chemistry and medicine,the process of popularized the vitamin knowledge through newspapers and schooling played important roles.The public’s cognitive attitude towards vitamins had gradually changed from unfamiliar to familiar to "vitamin fever".Vitamin commodities include supplements,medicines,beauty products and many other categories.In the early stage of the domestic market,vitamin commodities were dominated by imported cod liver oil.With the developed of domestic scientific research and technology and the increased of consumer demand,the variety of domestic vitamin products were increased,and merchants also adopted a variety of marketing methods to promote vitamin products.Modern China,especially from the 1930 s to the 1940 s,was devastated by war and had a poor living environment.At that time,due to insufficient nutrition intake,soldiers in the army frequently suffered from physical exhaustion and heavy casualties in battles.Infant survival rate and adult life span were also closely related to adequate nutrition intake.Based on that,the Nanjing national government took a series of measures from the central to the local government to supplement vitamins and other substances to improve the overall nutritional status of the society,in order to achieve the goal of "strengthening the country and strengthening the species".Vitamins are not only an integral part of nutrition knowledge,but also a nutrient and medicine.After the appearance of vitamins,the formation of new nutrition concept and the promotion of medicine and health development in modern China can not be ignored.