The structure of vitamin B1

Abstract In the 1930s, vitamins and hormones were very ‘fashionable' fields in biochemistry. The first vitamin to be isolated (in 1926) was vitamin B 1 , then named aneurin by its discoverers, Jansen and Donath. Its structure was elucidated much later, during 1934–1935, mainly through the work of Windaus and co-workers in Gottingen and R.R. Williams and co-workers in New York.