Vitamin Supplements

Vitamin B12 and folate are two more vitamins which are associated with the prevention and cure of certain types of anaemia. Both vitamins have fairly complex structures. B12 is the name given to a group of cobalamins, and folate is formed from a pteroic acid. B12 is only found in animal tissues and cannot be supplied in a diet of fruit and vegetables but folate is abundant in green, leafy vegetables, and the name folate, folic acid or folacin refers to its source in foliage. (Folium = leaf in Latin.)

There are various types of anaemia, but all forms of the disease can be described as a lack of sufficient red cells capable of carrying oxygen from the lungs to the tissues. In the last section we saw how important pyridoxine can be in helping to form the protein structure of haemoglobin. Iron is also needed and must be supplied in the diet. Read the rest of this entry »

The emergence of niacin as a specific vitamin dates back to the 1930s, but it has been known to the chemists as a substance called nicotinic acid for well over a hundred years. The vitamin occurs both as nicotinic acid (the acid) or nicotinamide (the amide), and these are the two specific names which come under the generic, or family title, of niacin. Occasionally it is written, incorrectly, as B3 and in the U.S.A. the generic term niacin is sometimes used to describe the acid form of the vitamin.

Another name for niacin found in older books on nutrition is ‘vitamin PP‘. This refers to the deficiency disease, pellagra. Niacin was found to protect against pellagra and was accordingly described as the pellagra- prevention factor, hence PP. This term is no longer in use but it does help in remembering a little of the history of this B vitamin. Pellagra is a skin disease which affects communities which live on maize as their main source of food with little or no protein foods to supplement the diet. Typical symptoms are severe dermatitis and reddening of the skin. It is summed up in textbooks as the disease of the three D’s — dementia, diarrhoea and dermatitis, but this is rather a sweeping description and can cover effects in many other deficiency diseases and illnesses. Read the rest of this entry »