7.1: Vitamins: Basic Concepts

Skills to Develop

• Define vitamin
• Know the difference between fat soluble and water soluble vitamins
• Recognize the names of each of the 13 vitamins
• For each vitamin, know what the vitamin does and what happens to the human body if: the vitamin is too low in the diet for too long (deficiency); the vitamin is too high in the diet for too long (toxicity) and be able to list some food sources that are rich in each of the vitamins.

Vitamins are organic compounds (meaning they contain Carbon) and they are vital nutrients that organisms require in limited amounts. Just like other essential nutrients, vitamins must be obtained from the diet since the organism can not make them (or can not make enough of them) for survival. Interestingly, not all organisms have the same vitamin requirements. For example, ascorbic acid (one form of vitamin C) is a vitamin for humans, because the human body can not make it for us, but most all other animals have the ability to make this vitamin for themselves.

Thirteen vitamins are universally recognized. Some researchers believe there are more vitamins that have yet to be discovered. Vitamins are classified as either: fat soluble (will dissolve in oil) or water soluble (will dissolve in water). Only four of the vitamins: A, D, E and K are fat soluble. The other 9 vitamins are water soluble, including: vitamin C and all of the B vitamins (Riboflavin, Niacin, Thiamin, B₆, Folate, B₁₂, Pantothenic Acid and Biotin). It is also important to note that, the term "vitamin" can refer to a number of compounds that all show the biological activity associated with a particular vitamin. For example, "vitamin A", includes the compounds: retinal, retinol, retinoic acid and four known carotenoids. All of these compounds can be converted into active vitamin A in the body and are therefore considered to be precursors to vitamin A.

Vitamins have diverse biochemical functions. Most of the vitamins have several important functions, not just one. Some vitamins, such as vitamin D and A, have hormone-like functions where they travel through the blood and tell certain cell types what to do. Other vitamins function as antioxidants (vitamin E and vitamin C for example). The largest number of vitamins, the B complex vitamins, function primarily as "enzyme helpers" called coenzymes. Coenzymes are needed for enzymes to function.

Vitamins are needed in very small quantities. When you look below, at the amounts needed, you'll see that the vitamins are measured in microgram (µg) or milligram (mg) amounts. Remember that there are 1,000 mg in 1 gram and 1,000 micrograms in 1 milligram. Those are tiny quantities and yet we can not live without them! As you read about each of the vitamins and their important roles in human health, keep in mind there can be too much of a good thing. These days, people sometimes choose to take large doses of vitamin supplements. Large doses of vitamin supplements can make it easy to get to toxic amounts of vitamins. I encourage you to think of vitamins as being on a continuum where you can be deficient (too low), just right, or toxic (too high). If you are just a little deficient you may only be able to detect the deficiency with a blood test but if you are deficient long enough and severe enough, systems of the body will eventually begin to lose function and you will see signs and symptoms overtly. At that stage it is called a "deficiency disease". If a deficiency disease is caught early enough it can usually be reversed by giving the person the vitamin they were deficient in but in some cases the damage that has been done is too severe and can not be reversed.

Exercise

Please click on the vitamin name below and you will be linked to a Wikipedia article to learn about that vitamin. Keep in mind, for quiz/exam purposes, you're looking for: function (what does the vitamin do?), deficiency symptoms (what happens if I'm too low for too long), toxicity symptoms (what happens if I have too much for too long?) and food sources (what can I eat to get more of this vitamin) for each of the 13 vitamins.

Table 7.1: List off vitamins

Vitamin generic descriptor name	Vitamin chemical name(s)	Solubility (fat or water)	Recommended dietary allowances (male, age 19–70)	Deficiency disease	Upper Intake Level (UL/day)	Overdose disease	Food sources
Vitamin A	Retinol, retinal, and four carotenoids including beta carotene	Fat	900 µg	Night blindness, hyperkeratosis, and keratomalacia	3,000 µg	Hypervitaminosis A	Liver, orange, ripe yellow fruits, leafy vegetables, carrots, pumpkin, squash, spinach, fish, soya milk, milk
Vitamin B1	Thiamine	Water	1.2 mg	Beriberi, Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome	N/D^[10]	Drowsiness or muscle relaxation with large doses.	Pork, oatmeal, brown rice, vegetables, potatoes, liver, eggs
Vitamin B2	Riboflavin	Water	1.3 mg	Ariboflavinosis, glossitis, angular stomatitis	N/D		Dairy products, bananas, popcorn, green beans, asparagus
Vitamin B3	Niacin, niacinamide	Water	16.0 mg	Pellagra	35.0 mg	Liver damage (doses > 2g/day) and other problems	Meat, fish, eggs, many vegetables, mushrooms, tree nuts
Vitamin B5	Pantothenic acid	Water	5.0 mg^[13]	Paresthesia	N/D	Diarrhea; possibly nausea and heartburn.	Meat, broccoli, avocados
Vitamin B6	Pyridoxine, pyridoxamine, pyridoxal	Water	1.3–1.7 mg	Anemia^[15] peripheral neuropathy	100 mg	Impairment of proprioception, nerve damage (doses > 100 mg/day)	Meat, vegetables, tree nuts, bananas
Vitamin B7	Biotin	Water	30.0 µg	Dermatitis, enteritis	N/D		Raw egg yolk, liver, peanuts, leafy green vegetables
Vitamin B9	Folic acid, folate, folinic acid	Water	400 µg	Megaloblastic anemia and deficiency during pregnancy is associated with birth defects, such as neural tube defects	1,000 µg	May mask symptoms of vitamin B12 deficiency; other effects.	Leafy vegetables, pasta, bread, cereal, liver
Vitamin B12	Cyanocobalamin, hydroxocobalamin, methylcobalamin	Water	2.4 µg	Megaloblastic anemia^[16]	N/D	Acne-like rash [causality is not conclusively established].	Meat and other animal products
Vitamin C	Ascorbic acid	Water	90.0 mg	Scurvy	2,000 mg	Vitamin C megadosage	Many fruits and vegetables, liver
Vitamin D	Cholecalciferol (D3), Ergocalciferol (D2)	Fat	10 µg^[17]	Rickets and osteomalacia	50 µg	Hypervitaminosis D	Fish, eggs, liver, mushrooms
Vitamin E	Tocopherols, tocotrienols	Fat	15.0 mg	Deficiency is very rare; sterility in males and abortions in females, mild hemolytic anemia in newborn infants^[18]	1,000 mg	Increased congestive heart failure seen in one large randomized study.	Many fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds
Vitamin K	phylloquinone, menaquinones	Fat	120 µg	Bleeding diathesis	N/D	Increases coagulation in patients taking warfarin.	Leafy green vegetables such as spinach, egg yolks,

Health effects

Vitamins are essential for the normal growth and development of a multicellular organism. Using the genetic blueprint inherited from its parents, a fetus begins to develop, at the moment of conception, from the nutrients it absorbs. It requires certain vitamins and minerals to be present at certain times. These nutrients facilitate the chemical reactions that produce among other things, skin, bone, and muscle. If there is serious deficiency in one or more of these nutrients, a child may develop a deficiency disease. Even minor deficiencies may cause permanent damage.[21]

For the most part, vitamins are obtained with food, but a few are obtained by other means. For example, microorganisms in the intestine — commonly known as "gut flora" — produce vitamin K and biotin, while one form of vitamin D is synthesized in the skin with the help of the natural ultraviolet wavelength of sunlight. Humans can produce some vitamins from precursors they consume. Examples include vitamin A, produced from beta carotene, and niacin, from the amino acid tryptophan.[8]

Once growth and development are completed, vitamins remain essential nutrients for the healthy maintenance of the cells, tissues, and organs that make up a multicellular organism; they also enable a multicellular life form to efficiently use chemical energy provided by food it eats, and to help process the proteins, carbohydrates, and fats required for respiration.[4]

Supplements

In those who are otherwise healthy, there is little evidence that supplements have any benefits with respect to cancer or heart disease.[2][22] Vitamin A and E supplements not only provide no health benefits for generally healthy individuals, but they may increase mortality, though the two large studies that support this conclusion included smokers for whom it was already known that beta-carotene supplements can be harmful.[22][23] While other findings suggest that vitamin E toxicity is limited to only a specific form when taken in excess.[24]

The European Union and other countries of Europe have regulations that define limits of vitamin (and mineral) dosages for their safe use as food supplements. Most vitamins that are sold as food supplements cannot exceed a maximum daily dosage. Vitamin products above these legal limits are not considered food supplements and must be registered as prescription or non-prescription (over-the-counter drugs) due to their potential side effects. As a result, most of the fat-soluble vitamins (such as the vitamins A, D, E, and K) that contain amounts above the daily allowance are drug products. The daily dosage of a vitamin supplement for example cannot exceed 300% of the recommended daily allowance, and for vitamin A, this limit is even lower (200%). Such regulations are applicable in most European countries.[25][26]

500 mg calcium supplement tablets, with vitamin D, made from calcium carbonate, maltodextrin, mineral oil, hypromellose, glycerin, cholecalciferol, polyethylene glycol, and carnauba wax.

Dietary supplements often contain vitamins, but may also include other ingredients, such as minerals, herbs, and botanicals. Scientific evidence supports the benefits of dietary supplements for persons with certain health conditions.[1] In some cases, vitamin supplements may have unwanted effects, especially if taken before surgery, with other dietary supplements or medicines, or if the person taking them has certain health conditions.[1] They may also contain levels of vitamins many times higher, and in different forms, than one may ingest through food.[27]

Effect of cooking

Shown below is percentage loss of vitamins after cooking averaged for common foods such as vegetables, meat or fish.

Typical Maximum Nutrient Losses due to cooking [28]

[show]Vitamin & MineralsFreezeDryCookCook+DrainReheat

It should be noted however that some vitamins may become more "bio-available" – that is, usable by the body – when steamed or cooked. The table below shows whether various vitamins are susceptible to loss from heat—such as heat from boiling, steaming, cooking etc.—and other agents. The effect of cutting vegetables can be seen from exposure to air and light. Water-soluble vitamins such as B and C seep into the water when a vegetable is boiled.[30]

Table \(\PageIndex{2}\): Properties of the 13 vitamins

Vitamin	Soluble in Water	Exposure to Air	Exposure to Light	Exposure to Heat
Biotin (B7)	somewhat	?	?	no
Folic Acid (B9)	yes	?	when dry	at high temp
Niacin (B3)	yes	no	no	no
Pantothenic Acid (B5)	quite stable	?	no	yes
Riboflavin (B2)	slightly	no	in solution	no
Thiamine (B1)	highly	no	?	> 100 °C
Vitamin A	no	partially^[clarification needed]	partially^[clarification needed]	relatively stable
Vitamin B12	yes	?	yes	no
Vitamin B6	yes	?	yes	?
Vitamin C	very unstable	yes^[clarification needed]	yes^[clarification needed]	yes
Vitamin D	no	no^[clarification needed]	no^[clarification needed]	no
Vitamin E	no	yes	yes	no
Vitamin K	no	no	yes	no

Deficiencies

Humans must consume vitamins periodically but with differing schedules, to avoid deficiency. The human body's stores for different vitamins vary widely; vitamins A, D, and B12 are stored in significant amounts in the human body, mainly in the liver,[18] and an adult human's diet may be deficient in vitamins A and D for many months and B12 in some cases for years, before developing a deficiency condition. However, vitamin B3 (niacin and niacinamide) is not stored in the human body in significant amounts, so stores may last only a couple of weeks.[9][18] For vitamin C, the first symptoms of scurvy in experimental studies of complete vitamin C deprivation in humans have varied widely, from a month to more than six months, depending on previous dietary history that determined body stores.[31]

Deficiencies of vitamins are classified as either primary or secondary. A primary deficiency occurs when an organism does not get enough of the vitamin in its food. A secondary deficiency may be due to an underlying disorder that prevents or limits the absorption or use of the vitamin, due to a "lifestyle factor", such as smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, or the use of medications that interfere with the absorption or use of the vitamin.[18] People who eat a varied diet are unlikely to develop a severe primary vitamin deficiency. In contrast, restrictive diets have the potential to cause prolonged vitamin deficits, which may result in often painful and potentially deadly diseases.

Well-known human vitamin deficiencies involve thiamine (beriberi), niacin (pellagra),[32] vitamin C (scurvy), and vitamin D (rickets).[33] In much of the developed world, such deficiencies are rare; this is due to (1) an adequate supply of food and (2) the addition of vitamins and minerals to common foods, often called fortification.[8][18] In addition to these classical vitamin deficiency diseases, some evidence has also suggested links between vitamin deficiency and a number of different disorders.[34][35]

Side-effects

In large doses, some vitamins have documented side-effects that tend to be more severe with a larger dosage. The likelihood of consuming too much of any vitamin from food is remote, but overdosing (vitamin poisoning) from vitamin supplementation does occur. At high enough dosages, some vitamins cause side-effects such as nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting.[9][36] When side-effects emerge, recovery is often accomplished by reducing the dosage. The doses of vitamins differ because individual tolerances can vary widely and appear to be related to age and state of health.

In 2008, overdose exposure to all formulations of vitamins and multivitamin-mineral formulations was reported by 68,911 individuals to the American Association of Poison Control Centers (nearly 80% of these exposures were in children under the age of 6), leading to 8 "major" life-threatening outcomes, but no deaths.[37]

Pharmacology

Vitamins are classified as either water-soluble or fat-soluble. In humans there are 13 vitamins: 4 fat-soluble (A, D, E, and K) and 9 water-soluble (8 B vitamins and vitamin C). Water-soluble vitamins dissolve easily in water and, in general, are readily excreted from the body, to the degree that urinary output is a strong predictor of vitamin consumption.[38] Because they are not as readily stored, more consistent intake is important.[39] Many types of water-soluble vitamins are synthesized by bacteria.[40] Fat-soluble vitamins are absorbed through the intestinal tract with the help of lipids (fats). Because they are more likely to accumulate in the body, they are more likely to lead to hypervitaminosis than are water-soluble vitamins. Fat-soluble vitamin regulation is of particular significance in cystic fibrosis.[41]

History

The discovery dates of the vitamins and their sources

Year of discovery Vitamin Food source

1913 Vitamin A (Retinol) Cod liver oil

1910 Vitamin B1 (Thiamine) Rice bran

1920 Vitamin C (Ascorbic acid) Citrus, most fresh foods

1920 Vitamin D (Calciferol) Cod liver oil

1920 Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin) Meat, dairy products, eggs

1922 (Vitamin E) (Tocopherol) Wheat germ oil,
unrefined vegetable oils

1926 Vitamin B12 (Cobalamins) Liver, eggs, animal products

1929 Vitamin K1 (Phylloquinone) Leaf vegetables

1931 Vitamin B5 (Pantothenic acid) Meat, whole grains,
in many foods

1931 Vitamin B7 (Biotin)Meat, dairy products, eggs

1934 Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine) Meat, dairy products

1936 Vitamin B3 (Niacin) Meat, grains

1941 Vitamin B9 (Folic acid) Leaf vegetables

The value of eating a certain food to maintain health was recognized long before vitamins were identified. The ancient Egyptians knew that feeding liver to a person would help cure night blindness, an illness now known to be caused by a vitamin A deficiency.[42] The advancement of ocean voyages during the Renaissance resulted in prolonged periods without access to fresh fruits and vegetables, and made illnesses from vitamin deficiency common among ships' crews.[43]

In 1747, the Scottish surgeon James Lind discovered that citrus foods helped prevent scurvy, a particularly deadly disease in which collagen is not properly formed, causing poor wound healing, bleeding of the gums, severe pain, and death.[42] In 1753, Lind published his Treatise on the Scurvy, which recommended using lemons and limes to avoid scurvy, which was adopted by the British Royal Navy. This led to the nickname limey for British sailors. Lind's discovery, however, was not widely accepted by individuals in the Royal Navy's Arctic expeditions in the 19th century, where it was widely believed that scurvy could be prevented by practicing good hygiene, regular exercise, and maintaining the morale of the crew while on board, rather than by a diet of fresh food.[42] As a result, Arctic expeditions continued to be plagued by scurvy and other deficiency diseases. In the early 20th century, when Robert Falcon Scott made his two expeditions to the Antarctic, the prevailing medical theory at the time was that scurvy was caused by "tainted" canned food.[42]

During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the use of deprivation studies allowed scientists to isolate and identify a number of vitamins. Lipid from fish oil was used to cure rickets in rats, and the fat-soluble nutrient was called "antirachitic A". Thus, the first "vitamin" bioactivity ever isolated, which cured rickets, was initially called "vitamin A"; however, the bioactivity of this compound is now called vitamin D.[44] In 1881, Russian surgeon Nikolai Lunin studied the effects of scurvy while at the University of Tartu in present-day Estonia.[45] He fed mice an artificial mixture of all the separate constituents of milk known at that time, namely the proteins, fats, carbohydrates, and salts. The mice that received only the individual constituents died, while the mice fed by milk itself developed normally. He made a conclusion that "a natural food such as milk must therefore contain, besides these known principal ingredients, small quantities of unknown substances essential to life."[45] However, his conclusions were rejected by his advisor, Gustav von Bunge, even after other students reproduced his results.[46] A similar result by Cornelius Pekelharing appeared in a Dutch medical journal in 1905, but it was not widely reported.[46]

In East Asia, where polished white rice was the common staple food of the middle class, beriberi resulting from lack of vitamin B1 was endemic. In 1884, Takaki Kanehiro, a British trained medical doctor of the Imperial Japanese Navy, observed that beriberi was endemic among low-ranking crew who often ate nothing but rice, but not among officers who consumed a Western-style diet. With the support of the Japanese navy, he experimented using crews of two battleships; one crew was fed only white rice, while the other was fed a diet of meat, fish, barley, rice, and beans. The group that ate only white rice documented 161 crew members with beriberi and 25 deaths, while the latter group had only 14 cases of beriberi and no deaths. This convinced Takaki and the Japanese Navy that diet was the cause of beriberi, but they mistakenly believed that sufficient amounts of protein prevented it.[47] That diseases could result from some dietary deficiencies was further investigated by Christiaan Eijkman, who in 1897 discovered that feeding unpolished rice instead of the polished variety to chickens helped to prevent beriberi in the chickens.[32] The following year, Frederick Hopkins postulated that some foods contained "accessory factors" — in addition to proteins, carbohydrates, fats etc. — that are necessary for the functions of the human body.[42] Hopkins and Eijkman were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1929 for their discoveries.[48]

In 1910, the first vitamin complex was isolated by Japanese scientist Umetaro Suzuki, who succeeded in extracting a water-soluble complex of micronutrients from rice bran and named it aberic acid (later Orizanin). He published this discovery in a Japanese scientific journal.[49] When the article was translated into German, the translation failed to state that it was a newly discovered nutrient, a claim made in the original Japanese article, and hence his discovery failed to gain publicity. In 1912 Polish-born biochemist Casimir Funk, working in London, isolated the same complex of micronutrients and proposed the complex be named "vitamine". It was later to be known as vitamin B3 (niacin), though he described it as "anti-beri-beri-factor" (which would today be called thiamine or vitamin B1). Funk proposed the hypothesis that other diseases, such as rickets, pellagra, coeliac disease, and scurvy could also be cured by vitamins. Max Nierenstein a friend and reader of Biochemistry at Bristol University reportedly suggested the "vitamine" name (from "vital amine").[50]).[51] The name soon became synonymous with Hopkins' "accessory factors", and, by the time it was shown that not all vitamins are amines, the word was already ubiquitous. In 1920, Jack Cecil Drummond proposed that the final "e" be dropped to deemphasize the "amine" reference, after researchers began to suspect that not all "vitamines" (in particular, vitamin A) have an amine component.[47]

In 1930, Paul Karrer elucidated the correct structure for beta-carotene, the main precursor of vitamin A, and identified other carotenoids. Karrer and Norman Haworth confirmed Albert Szent-Györgyi's discovery of ascorbic acid and made significant contributions to the chemistry of flavins, which led to the identification of lactoflavin. For their investigations on carotenoids, flavins and vitamins A and B2, they both received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1937.[52]

In 1931, Albert Szent-Györgyi and a fellow researcher Joseph Svirbely suspected that "hexuronic acid" was actually vitamin C, and gave a sample to Charles Glen King, who proved its anti-scorbutic activity in his long-established guinea pig scorbutic assay. In 1937, Szent-Györgyi was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery. In 1943, Edward Adelbert Doisy and Henrik Dam were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery of vitamin K and its chemical structure. In 1967, George Wald was awarded the Nobel Prize (along with Ragnar Granit and Haldan Keffer Hartline) for his discovery that vitamin A could participate directly in a physiological process.[48]

Etymology

The term vitamin was derived from "vitamine", a compound word coined in 1912 by the Polish biochemist Kazimierz Funk[53] when working at the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine. The name is from vital and amine, meaning amine of life, because it was suggested in 1912 that the organic micronutrient food factors that prevent beriberi and perhaps other similar dietary-deficiency diseases might be chemical amines. This was true of thiamine, but after it was found that other such micronutrients were not amines the word was shortened to vitamin in English.

Society and culture

Once discovered, vitamins were actively promoted in articles and advertisements in McCall's, Good Housekeeping, and other media.[32] Marketers enthusiastically promoted cod-liver oil, a source of Vitamin D, as "bottled sunshine", and bananas as a “natural vitality food". They promoted foods such as yeast cakes, a source of B vitamins, on the basis of scientifically-determined nutritional value, rather than taste or appearance.[54] World War II researchers focused on the need to ensure adequate nutrition, especially in processed foods.[32] Robert W. Yoder is credited with first using the term vitamania, in 1942, to describe the appeal of relying on nutritional supplements rather than on obtaining vitamins from a varied diet of foods.[33]

Governmental regulation

Most countries place dietary supplements in a special category under the general umbrella of foods, not drugs. As a result, the manufacturer, and not the government, has the responsibility of ensuring that its dietary supplement products are safe before they are marketed. Regulation of supplements varies widely by country. In the United States, a dietary supplement is defined under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994.[55] There is no FDA approval process for dietary supplements, and no requirement that manufacturers prove the safety or efficacy of supplements introduced before 1994.[32][33] The Food and Drug Administration must rely on its Adverse Event Reporting System to monitor adverse events that occur with supplements.[56] In 2007, the US Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Title 21, part III took effect, regulating GMP practices in the manufacturing, packaging, labeling, or holding operations for dietary supplements. Even though product registration is not required, these regulations mandate production and quality control standards (including testing for identity, purity and adulterations) for dietary supplements.[57] In the European Union, the Food Supplements Directive requires that only those supplements that have been proven safe can be sold without a prescription.[58] For most vitamins, pharmacopoeial standards have been established. In the United States, the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) sets standards for the most commonly used vitamins and preparations thereof. Likewise, monographs of the European Pharmacopoeia (Ph.Eur.) regulate aspects of identity and purity for vitamins on the European market.

Naming Vitamins

The reason that the set of vitamins skips directly from E to K is that the vitamins corresponding to letters F–J were either reclassified over time, discarded as false leads, or renamed because of their relationship to vitamin B, which became a complex of vitamins. The German-speaking scientists who isolated and described vitamin K (in addition to naming it as such) did so because the vitamin is intimately involved in the coagulation of blood following wounding (from the German word Koagulation). At the time, most (but not all) of the letters from F through to J were already designated, so the use of the letter K was considered quite reasonable. The table nomenclature of reclassified vitamins lists chemicals that had previously been classified as vitamins, as well as the earlier names of vitamins that later became part of the B-complex.

There are other missing B vitamins which were reclassified or determined not to be vitamins. For example, B9 is folic acid and five of the folates are in the range B11 through B16, forms of other vitamins already discovered, not required as a nutrient by the entire population (like B10, PABA for internal use), biologically inactive, toxic, or with unclassifiable effects in humans, or not generally recognised as vitamins by science,[64] such as the highest-numbered, which some naturopath practitioners call B21 and B22. There are also nine lettered B complex vitamins (e.g. Bm). There are other D vitamins now recognised as other substances,[63] which some sources of the same type number up to D7. The controversial cancer treatment laetrile was at one point lettered as vitamin B17. There appears to be no consensus on any vitamins Q, R, T, V, W, X, Y or Z, nor are there substances officially designated as Vitamins N or I, although the latter may have been another form of one of the other vitamins or a known and named nutrient of another type.

Table \(\PageIndex{3}\): Nomenclature of reclassified vitamins

Previous name	Chemical name	Reason for name change
Vitamin B4	Adenine	DNA metabolite; synthesized in body
Vitamin B8	Adenylic acid	DNA metabolite; synthesized in body
Vitamin F	Essential fatty acids	Needed in large quantities (does not fit the definition of a vitamin).
Vitamin G	Riboflavin	Reclassified as Vitamin B2
Vitamin H	Biotin	Reclassified as Vitamin B7
Vitamin J	Catechol, Flavin	Catechol nonessential; flavin reclassified as Vitamin B2
Vitamin L1^[60]	Anthranilic acid	Non essential
Vitamin L2^[60]	Adenylthiomethylpentose	RNA metabolite; synthesized in body
Vitamin M	Folic acid	Reclassified as Vitamin B9
Vitamin O	Carnitine	Synthesized in body
Vitamin P	Flavonoids	No longer classified as a vitamin
Vitamin PP	Niacin	Reclassified as Vitamin B3
Vitamin S	Salicylic acid	Proposed inclusion^[61] of salicylate as an essential micronutrient
Vitamin U	S-Methylmethionine	Protein metabolite; synthesized in body

Anti-vitamins

Anti-vitamins are chemical compounds that inhibit the absorption or actions of vitamins. For example, avidin is a protein in egg whites that inhibits the absorption of biotin.[65] Pyrithiamine is similar to thiamine, vitamin B₁, and inhibits the enzymes that use thiamine.

Contirubots

• Wikipedia. The content on this page is licensesed under a CC-BY-SA 4.0 licences in contract to that for the rest of the medicine library.