Thomas Burr Osborne, “The Vegetable Proteins”, 1909.


F. Benedict and W. Atwater, A Respiration Calorimeter with Appliances for the Direct Determination of Oxygen, 1902 was the topic of an earlier blog post.

Frederick Sanger, “Determination of Nucleotide Sequences in DNA”, NOBEL PRIZE LECTURE, 8 December 1980 was also the topic of an earlier blog post.



Here I present: Thomas Burr Osborne, “The Vegetable Proteins”, 1909.   Thomas Burr Osborne (with fellow Yale Medical School biochemists) determined the ­nine (9) essential amino acids diet.

SUMMARY.
Thomas Burr Osborne (1859 – 1929) was a biochemist who spent his career at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station.

 

Thomas Burr Osborne with Lafayette Mendel, independently discovered Vitamin A, though Elmer McCollum and Marguerite Davis were ultimately given credit, as they had submitted their paper first by three weeks.

Thomas Burr Osborne is known for his work isolating and characterizing seed proteins, and for determining human protein nutrition.



Here I presented: Thomas Burr Osborne (1859 – 1929), “The Vegetable Proteins”, 1909.

Thomas Burr Osborne
is known for his work isolating and characterizing seed proteins, and for determining human protein nutrition.

COMMENTS.

Kwashiorkor is the term for “protein starvation” first coined in 1935 by Doctor Cicely Williams.  

Kwashiorkor is “protein starvation” and should not be confused with “caloric starvation” studied by Wilbur Atwater in 1902.   Thomas Burr Osbourne’s (1859-1929) studies allowed for clear distinction of protein-deficiency versus caloric-deficiency.

Today, everyone can see on the labels of any food what is the caloric and protein (RDA) recommended daily allowance.  However, most people never heard of Wilbur Atwater and Thomas Burr Osborne.


The essential amino acids (EAA) are L-Leucine, L-Isoleucine, L-Valine, L-Lysine HCl, L-Threonine, L-Phenylalanine, L-Methionine, L-Histidine HCl, and L-Tryptophan; and, Thomas Burr Osbourne is famous for EAA (essential amino acids).

Continue reading “Thomas Burr Osborne, “The Vegetable Proteins”, 1909.”