Vitamins
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Vitamins
Animal Nutrition of Class 11
Historical Review. N.I. Lunin (1881) discovered vitamins. Hopkins and Funk (1912) profounded a ‘Vitamin Theory’. Vitamin was chemically an amine and was vital to life. Hence Funk
(1911) named it Vitamine (L. vita - life + amine = vital amine). The term vitamin’ is retained now omitting the terminal ‘e’ in its spelling. The book entitled ‘The vitamins’ was written by Funk and published in 1922.
Definition. Vitamins can be defined as naturally occurring organic substances which are required in minute amount to maintain normal health and are to be supplied in food as they cannot be synthesized by the organism (except vitamin D which can be synthesized by the skin in the presence of sunlight).
General information about vitamins
They do not provide energy. They are not used as structural units. Vitamins differ from hormones in not being produced within the organism. They are usually required as co-enzymes or precursors of co-enzymes. Hence it is better to call them the accessory food substances.
Vitamin C was the earliest known vitamin. Vitamin A was the first fat soluble vitamin to be discovered by Mc Collum. First vitamin to be isolated was B1 (Funk 1911). Vitamin C was
the first vitamin to be produced during fermentation process using Acetobacter, a wild bacterium by Albert Gyorgyi. Vitamin C is the most sensitive of all vitamins to heat. Antineuritic
vitamins are B1, B6 and B12. Antioxidant vitamins are A, E and C. Nature’s most potent antioxidant is vitamin E. Vegetable foods lack vitamin B12. According to some authorities, an alga
Spirulina contains vitamin B12, Vitamin B6 is used in the treatment of tuberculosis. Vitamins taking part in the TCA cycle (Krebs cycle) are (i) Thiamine (B1) as thiamine pyrophosphate (TPP), (ii) Riboflavin (B2) as FMN and FAD, (iii) Niacin (B3) as NAD and NADP and (iv) Pantothenic acid (B5) as part of coenzyme A.
Vitamins are divided into two main groups.
Fat soluble vitamins, e.g., vitamins A, D, E and K
Water soluble vitamins, e.g., vitamins B-complex, C and P.
Fat Soluble Vitamins
