In 1947, Folkers and his team isolated vitamin B12 (cobalamin), producing tiny, bright red crystals of the vitamin. The following year, this new compound was tested on a patient who suffered from pernicious anemia, curing her. Cobalamin was later found to be a key growth factor in animals.
How did early humans get B12?
Once our forebears began scavenging meat and bone marrow, they found themselves with a steady supply of dietary vitamin B12, which then grew in abundance when we began to hunt. It must have been during this meat-eating stage in our evolution that we began to absorb B12 in the small intestine instead of the large one.
When was the B12 injection invented?
It is used by mouth, by injection into a muscle, or as a nasal spray. is an essential nutrient meaning that it cannot be made by the body but is required for life. Cyanocobalamin was first manufactured in the 1940s.
