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The macula lutea or literally "yellow spot" was first described in the eye in 1782 and speculation on its nature and purpose were rampant until 1945 when G. Wald and collaborators at Harvard tentatively identified it as lutein. Wald's more famous work (Nobel prize-winning) was elucidation of the chemistry behind the visual cycle of Vitamin A aldehyde (retinal) and rhodopsin (the visual pigment). Retinal was known to be produced from related plant pigments, or carotenoids, particularly beta-carotene. In this same time period the photoprotective role of carotenoids were being elucidated in bacteria and to a lesser degree in green plants. These series of events led to the first experimental supplementation trials in the late 1940s thru 1960s with supplements like sunflower extract (helenium or adaptinol). These early experiments showed some effects with dark adaptation, night vision, threshold sensitivity, retinitis pigmentosa, various luminous and chromatic sensitivities, and visual acuity.
The modern era in this field accelerated in 1985 when a group in Miami (Bone & Landrum) determined that the macular pigment was composed of both lutein and the related carotenoid zeaxanthin. Two major events in 1994 were prominent in accelerating this field: the legislative passage of DSHEA (Dietary Supplement Health & Education Act) and publication of a seminal epidemiology study from Harvard linking high dietary consumption of lutein/zeaxanthin rich vegetables with reduced risk for wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) |