Vitamin C

Vitamin C” or “ascorbic acid” was first isolated in pure crystalline form from
lemon juice by the American biochemist C. G. King and W. A. Waugh in 1932. It
is one of the simplest vitamins in structure, being a lactone of a sugar acid.
Ascorbic acid is required in the diet of only a few vertebrates: man, monkeys,
The guinea pig, The Indian fruit bat, and certain fishes. Some insects and other
invertebrates also require ascorbic acid but more often higher animals and
plants can synthesize ascorbic acid from glucose or other simple precursors.
Ascorbic acid is not present in microorganisms nor does it seem to be required.
Ascorbic acid is a strong reducing agent readily losing hydrogen atoms to become
dehydroascorbic acid, which also has vitamin c activity.
However, Vitamin C actually is lost when the lactone ring of dehydroascorbic acid
is hydrolyzed to yield dilactogulonic acid. Ascorbic acid in food is easily destroyed
by cooking. In animal and plant tissues rather high concentrations of ascorbic
acid are present in comparison with other water soluble vitamins, e.g. human
blood plasma contains about 1 mg of ascorbic acid per 100 ml. Ascorbic acid is
especially abundant in citrus fruits and tomatoes. Although the symptoms of
scurvy in man can be prevented by as little as 10 mg of ascorbic acid per day,
there is some evidence that far larger amounts may be required for completely
optimal physiological function and well-being. Despite the relatively high
concentration of ascorbic acid in the tissues and its rather simple structure, its
physiological function is not yet known. It acts as a co-factor in the enzymatic
hydroxylation of proline to hydroxyproline and in other hydroxylation reactions,
but it is not specific in these reactions and can be replaced by other reducing
agents without anti-scorbutic activity.
2. the structure and the biosynthesis of the vitamin C from the glucose (steps).
3. The important roles of vitamin C in metabolic process.
 Vitamin A
Vitamin A occurs in two common forms, vitamin A,, or retinol the form most
common in mammalian
Tissues and marine fishes, and vitamin A,, or retinol,. Common in freshwater
fishes. Both are isoprenoid compounds containing a six-membered carbocyclic
ring and an eleven carbon side chain. Vitamin A activity in mammals is given not
only by the retinols but also by certain carotenoids widely distributed in plants,
particularly a-, β-, and y-carotene. The carotenes have no intrinsic vitamin A
activity per se but are converted into vitamin A by enzymatic reactions in the
intestinal mucosa and the liver. ẞ-Carotene, a symmet- rical molecule, is cleaved
in its center to yield two molecules of retinol Retinol occurs in the tissues of
mammals and is transported in the blood in the form of esters of long-chain fatty
acids.
Vitamin A deficiency was first recognized in the rat, but all mammals, including
man, appear to be susceptible, with little variation in the symptoms. In vitamin
A deficiency young animals fail to grow, the bones and nervous system fail to
develop properly, the skin becomes dry and thickened, the kidneys and various
glands degenerate, and both males and females become sterile. Although all
tissues appear to be disturbed by vitamin A deficiency, the eyes are most
conspicuously affected. In infants and young children the condition known as
xerophthalmia (“dry eyes”) is an early symptom of deficiency and is a common
cause of blindness in some tropical areas where nutrition is generally poor. In
adults an early sign of vitamin A deficiency is nightblindness, a deficiency in dark
adaptation, which is often used as a diagnostic test. Young animals are most sus
ceptible to vitamin A deficiency, which is not readily pro duced in adults because
the liver can store sufficient vitamin A to last for months or even years.
 Vitamin K
Vitamin K (K for Danish, koagulation) was first discovered by H. Dam in
Denmark as a nutritional factor required for normal blood-clotting
time in chicks fed a diet producing a tendency to hemorrhage. It was
isolated and its structure determined by E. A. Doisy and his colleagues
in the United States in 1939. At least two forms of vitamin K are known
vitamin K, is believed to be the active form. Menadione, or vitamin K,,
a synthetic product, lacks a long side chain. Vitamin K deficiency
cannot readily be produced in rats and other mammals because the
vitamin is synthesized by intestinal bacteria.
The only known result of vitamin K deficiency is a failure in the
biosynthesis of the enzyme proconvertin in the liver. This enzyme
catalyzes a step in a complex sequence of reactions involved in the
formation of prothrombin, the precursor of thrombin, a protein that
accelerates the conversion of fibrinogen into fibrin, the insoluble
protein constituting the fibrous portion of blood clots. The compound
dicumarol, an analog of vitamin K produces symptoms in animals
resembling vitamin K deficiency; it is believed to block the action of
vitamin K. Dicumarol is used in clínical medicine to prevent clotting in
blood vessels.
Since vitamin K is produced by many microorganisms and most plants
and is found in the tissues of all organisms, the question has arisen
whether it does not have some other more general biological activity
than as a factor in blood clotting. Some evidence indicates that it may
function as a coenzyme in a specialized route of electron transport in
animal tissues; since vitamin K is a quinone which can be reduced
reversibly to a quinol, it may serve as an electron carrier.
 Biological role of copper
Copper is essential in all plants and animals. The human body normally contains
copper at a level of about 1.4 to 2.1 mg for each kg of body weight. Copper is
distributed widely in the body and occurs in liver, musele and bone. Copper is
transported in the bloodstream on a plasma protein called ceruloplasmin. When
copper is first absorbed in the gut it is transported to the liver bound to albumin.
Copper metabolism and excretion is controlled delivery of copper to the liver by
ceruloplasmin, where it is excreted in bile.
Copper is found in a variety of enzymes, including the copper centers of
cytochrome c oxidase and the enzyme superoxide dismutase (containing copper
and zinc). In addition to its enzymatic roles, copper is used for biological electron
transport. The blue copper proteins that participate in electron transport include
azurin and plastocyanin. The name “blue copper” comes from their intense blue
color arising from a ligand-to-metal charge transfer (LMCT) absorption band
around 600 nm.
Most molluscs and some arthropods such as the horseshoe crab use the copper-
containing pigment hemocyanin rather than iron-containing hemoglobin for
oxygen transport, so their blood is blue when oxygenated rather than red (51)
It is believed that zinc and copper compete for absorption in the digestive tract
so that a diet that is excessive in one of these minerals may result in a deficiency
in the other. The RDA for copper in normal healthy adults is 0.9 mg/day. On the
other hand, professional research on the subject recommends 3.0 mg/day: 1521
Because of its role in facilitating iron uptake, copper deficiency can often
produce anemia-like symptoms. Conversely, accumulations of copper in body
tissues are believed to cause the symptoms of Wilson’s disease in humans.
Chronic copper depletion leads to abnormalities in metabolism of fats, high
triglycerides, non- alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), fatty liver disease and poor
melanin and dopamine synthesis causing depression and sunburn. Food rich in
copper should be eaten away from any milk or egg proteins as they block
absorption.
 Vitamin D
It has long been known that rickets, a disease of growing bone causing
bowlegs and pigeon breast, is common in areas with long winters
where children are exposed to little sunlight and that ingestion of fish-
liver oils can prevent the symptoms of rickets. These clues led to the
isolation and identification of several compounds having vitamin D or
potential vitamin D activity. Most important are vitamin D₂, or
ergocalciferol, and vitamin D, or chalecalciferol (Figure 13-23); the
form normally found in mammals. These comPounds may be regarded
as steroids.
In which the B ring has been ruptured. Since irradiation of certain
food- stuffs with ultraviolet light also produces substances with vi-
tamin D activity, a search for precursors of vitamin D re- vealed that 7-
dehydrocholesterol, common in animal tissues; is converted by
irradiation into cholecalciferol. Similarly, the yeast sterol ergosterol is
converted by irradiation into ergocalciferol From these findings it is
now known that 7-dehydrocholesterol in the skin is the natural
precursor of cholecalciferol in man; the conversion requires irradiation
of the skin by sunlight. On a normal un supplemented diet this is the
major route by which people usually acquire vitamin D. Most natural
foods contain little if any vitamin D: preformed vitamin D in the diet
comes largely from fish-liver oils or from irradiated natural sources.
Vitamin D preparations available commercially are products of the
ultraviolet irradiation of ergosterol from yeast. About 20 µg of vitamin
D is required by an adult daily. The vitamin can be stored in sufficient
amounts in the liver for a single dose to suffice for some weeks. As
with vitamin A, excessive intake of vitamin D causes the bones to
become fragile and to undergo multiple fractures, suggesting that both
vitamins play a role in biological transport and deposition of calcium.