Fact of the Day: vitamins Vitamins are organic substances necessary in small quantities for health and growth in higher forms of animal life. If a vitamin is absent from the diet or is not properly absorbed by an organism, a deficiency disease may develop. The term vitamin originated from vitamine, a word first used in 1911 to designate a group of compounds considered vital for life; each was thought to have a nitrogen-containing component known as an amine. The final e of vitamine was dropped when it was discovered that not all of the vitamins contain nitrogen and, therefore, not all are amines. Vitamins are usually divided into two groups: fat-soluble (A, D, E) and water-soluble (folic acid or folate, niacin, riboflavin, thiamin, B12, B6, and C).
Posted on: Mon, 28 Oct 2013 04:49:08 +0000
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