Vitamin

A vitamin is an organic molecule (or a set of molecules next door to similar chemically, i.e. vitamers) that is an indispensable micronutrient which an organism needs in little quantities for the proper involved of its metabolism. vital nutrients cannot be synthesized in the organism, either at all or not in enough quantities, and for that reason must be obtained through the diet. Vitamin C can be synthesized by some species but not by others; it is not a vitamin in the first instance but is in the second. The term vitamin does not augment the three further groups of vital nutrients: minerals, essential fatty acids, and vital amino acids. Most vitamins are not single molecules, but groups of aligned molecules called vitamers. For example, there are eight vitamers of vitamin E: four tocopherols and four tocotrienols. Some sources list fourteen vitamins, by including choline, but major health organizations list thirteen: vitamin A (as all-trans-retinol, all-trans-retinyl-esters, as well as all-trans-beta-carotene and other provitamin A carotenoids), vitamin B1 (thiamine), vitamin B2 (riboflavin), vitamin B3 (niacin), vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid), vitamin B6 (pyridoxine), vitamin B7 (biotin), vitamin B9 (folic mordant or folate), vitamin B12 (cobalamins), vitamin C (ascorbic acid), vitamin D (calciferols), vitamin E (tocopherols and tocotrienols), and vitamin K (phylloquinone and menaquinones).

Vitamins have diverse biochemical functions. Vitamin A acts as a regulator of cell and tissue increase and differentiation. Vitamin D provides a hormone-like function, flexible mineral metabolism for bones and additional organs. The B complex vitamins feint as enzyme cofactors (coenzymes) or the precursors for them. Vitamins C and E action as antioxidants. Both deficient and excess intake of a vitamin can potentially cause clinically significant illness, although excess intake of water-soluble vitamins is less likely to accomplish so.

Before 1935, the isolated source of vitamins was from food. If intake of vitamins was lacking, the repercussion was vitamin want and consequent deficiency diseases. Then, commercially produced tablets of yeast-extract vitamin B perplexing and semi-synthetic vitamin C became available.

This was followed in the 1950s by the accrual production and promotion of vitamin supplements, including multivitamins, to prevent vitamin deficiencies in the general population. Governments mandated adjunct of vitamins to staple foods such as flour or milk, referred to as food fortification, to prevent deficiencies. Recommendations for folic acid supplementation during pregnancy reduced risk of infant neural tube defects.

The term vitamin is derived from the word vitamine, which was coined in 1912 by Polish biochemist Casimir Funk, who isolated a technical of micronutrients necessary to life, all of which he presumed to be amines. similar to this presumption was innovative positive not to be true, the "e" was dropped from the name. all vitamins were discovered (identified) amongst 1913 and 1948.

Which foods contain sufficent amount of Vitamin C - lifealth