Mendel, Lafayette Benedict

Lafayette Benedict Mendel, (born Feb. 5, 1872, Delhi, N.Y., U.S.—died Dec. 9, 1935, New Haven, Conn.), American biochemist whose discoveries concerning the value of vitamins and proteins helped establish modern concepts of nutrition.

A professor of physiological chemistry at Yale from 1903 to 1935, he worked with the American biochemist Thomas Osborne to determine why rats could not survive on diets of pure carbohydrates, fats, and proteins alone. Simultaneously with the American biochemists Elmer McCollum and Marguerite Davis, he discovered a fat-soluble factor in cod liver oil and butter (1913; now known to be vitamin A) and a water-soluble factor in milk (1915; now known to be the vitamin B complex), both necessary to life. These researchers also proved that the nutritive value of proteins is determined by the amounts of essential amino acids they contain. Mendel wrote Changes in the Food Supply and Their Relation to Nutrition (1916) and Nutrition: the Chemistry of Life (1923).