VITAMIN B COMPLEX

VITAMIN B COMPLEX

Originally, vitamin B referred to a vitamin whose deficiency causes beriberi in man and polyneuritis in birds. Later, Goldberger’s researches on pellagra led to the view that vitamin B consisted of at least 2 factors : a heat-labile antiberiberi factor and a comparatively heat-stable antipellagr a factor. Some called the former factor as vitamin B1 and the latter as vitamin B2. But the later researches conducted by Richard Kuhn, Conrad Elvehjem and others have established the fact that vitamin B complex, as represented by yeast, rice bran and liver extracts, contains still other factors. At present, the vitamin B complex is known to consist of a group of at least 13 components usually named as B1, B2, B3 etc. But to prevent confusion, their chemical names are now frequently used. The various members of the vitamin B complex are not related either chemically or physiologically, yet they have many features in common:
(a) All of them except lipoic acid are water-soluble.
(b) Most of them, if not all, are components of coenzymes that play vital roles in metabolism (refer Table).
(c) Most of these can be obtained from the same source, i.e., liver and yeast.
(d) Most of them can be synthesized by the intestinal bacteria.