ABSTRACT
In 1849, Strecker, a German chemist, isolated a compound from hog bile to which he subsequently gave the name choline (from the Greek word “chole,” meaning bile). It was synthesized in 1867, and its structure was established, but the compound did not attract the attention of nutritionists and biochemists at that time. In 1932, Best and his associates in Toronto observed that pancreatectomized dogs that were maintained on insulin developed fatty livers. Feeding fresh beef pancreas or egg yolk, however, cured the fatty liver, and the effective agent (or one of the effective agents) was choline present in the pancreas and egg yolk. Subsequently, other investigators reported that choline was essential for the growth of young rats, thereby indicating its vitamin-like nature.
