NAME: MUHAMMAD FAHAD RASHEED

REG. NO. BPD02203364

SECTION: 1-E
TOPIC: VITAMIN C
SUBMITTED TO: MAM RABIA HUSSAIN
REFERENCE:- (INTERNET)
Vitamin C (also known as ascorbic acid and ascorbate) is a vitamin found in various foods and
sold as a dietary supplement. As the structural formula of Ascorbic acid is:
As Vitamin C has the chemical formula C6H8O6 and a molecular mass of 176.14 grams per
mol. Vitamin C is purely the L-enantiomer of ascorbate; the opposite D-enantiomer has no
physiological significance. Both forms are mirror images of the same molecular structure.
The 3-D structure of Vitamin C is below:

HISTORY:-
Vitamin C was discovered in 1912, isolated in 1928, and, in 1933, was the
first vitamin to be chemically produced. It is on the World Health Organization's List of
Essential Medicines. Vitamin C is available as an inexpensive generic and over-the-
counter medication. Partly for its discovery, Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
(September 16, 1893 – October 22, 1986)
He was a Hungarian biochemist who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in
1937. He is credited with first isolating vitamin C and discovering the components and reactions
of the citric acid cycle. He was also active in the Hungarian Resistance during World War II and
entered Hungarian politics after the war.

And Sir Walter Norman Haworth (19 March 1883 – 19 March 1950) was a
British chemist best known for his groundbreaking work on ascorbic acid (vitamin C) while
working at the University of Birmingham. He received the 1937 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for
his investigations on carbohydrates and vitamin C". The prize was shared with Swiss
chemist Paul Karrer for his work on other vitamins.

SIGNIFICANCE:-
Vitamin C is an essential nutrient for certain animals including
humans. The term vitamin C encompasses several vitamers that have vitamin C activity in
animals. Ascorbate salts such as sodium ascorbate and calcium ascorbate are used in some
dietary supplements. These release ascorbate upon digestion. Ascorbate and ascorbic acid are
both naturally present in the body, since the forms interconvert according to pH. Oxidized forms
of the molecule such as dehydroascorbic acid are converted back to ascorbic acid by reducing
agents.
Vitamin C functions as a cofactor in many enzymatic reactions in animals (including humans)
that mediate a variety of essential biological functions, including wound
healing and collagen synthesis. In humans, vitamin C deficiency leads to
impaired collagen synthesis, contributing to the more severe symptoms of scurvy. Another
biochemical role of vitamin C is to act as an antioxidant (a reducing agent) by donating
electrons to various enzymatic and non-enzymatic reactions. Doing so converts vitamin C to an
oxidized state - either as semi dehydroascorbic acid or dehydroascorbic acid. These
compounds can be restored to a reduced state by glutathione and NADPH-
dependent enzymatic mechanisms.

SOURCES:-
These above are the Plant sources of Vitamin C. The richest natural sources of vitamin C are
fruits and vegetables. The vitamin is the most widely taken nutritional supplement and is
available in a variety of forms, including tablets, drink mixes, and in capsules.

ANIMAL SOURCES:
Animal-sourced foods do not provide much vitamin C, and what
there is, is largely destroyed by the heat of cooking. For example, raw chicken liver contains
17.9 mg/100 g, but fried, the content is reduced to 2.7 mg/100 g. Chicken eggs contain no
vitamin C, raw or cooked. Vitamin C is present in human breast milk at 5.0 mg/100 g and
6.1 mg/100 g in one tested sample of infant formula, but cow's milk contains only 1.0 mg/
100 g.

Supplements:-
Vitamin C dietary supplements are available as tablets, capsules, drink mix
packets, in multi-vitamin/mineral formulations, in antioxidant formulations, and as
crystalline powder. Vitamin C is also added to some fruit juices and juice drinks. Tablet and
capsule content ranges from 25 mg to 1500 mg per serving. The most commonly used
supplement compounds are ascorbic acid, sodium ascorbate and calcium ascorbate. Vitamin
C molecules can also be bound to the fatty acid palmitate, creating ascorbyl palmitate, or else
incorporated into liposomes.

Deficiency:-
Vitamin C deficiency causes mainly scurvy. Scurvy is characterized by spots on
and bleeding under the skin, spongy gums, 'corkscrew' hair growth, and poor wound
healing. The skin lesions are most abundant on the thighs and legs, and a person with the
ailment looks pale, feels depressed, and is partially immobilized. In advanced scurvy there are
open, suppurating wounds, loss of teeth, bone abnormalities and, eventually, death.

Side Effects:-
Vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin, with dietary excesses not absorbed, and
excesses in the blood rapidly excreted in the urine, so it exhibits remarkably low acute
toxicity. More than two to three grams may cause indigestion, particularly when taken on an
empty stomach. However, taking vitamin C in the form of sodium ascorbate and calcium
ascorbate may minimize this effect. Other symptoms reported for large doses include nausea,
abdominal cramps and diarrhea. These effects are attributed to the osmotic effect of
unabsorbed vitamin C passing through the intestine. In theory, high vitamin C intake may cause
excessive absorption of iron. A summary of reviews of supplementation in healthy subjects did
not report this problem, but left as untested the possibility that individuals with
hereditary hemochromatosis might be adversely affected.
There is a longstanding belief among
the mainstream medical community that vitamin C increases risk of kidney stones "Reports of
kidney stone formation associated with excess ascorbic acid intake are limited to individuals
with renal disease".
Recommended Diet:-
Recommendations for vitamin C intake by adults have been set by various national
agencies:

• 40 milligrams per day: India National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad

• 45 milligrams per day or 300 milligrams per week: the World Health Organization
• 80 milligrams per day: the European Commission Council on nutrition labeling
• 90 mg/day (males) and 75 mg/day (females): Health Canada 2007
• 90 mg/day (males) and 75 mg/day (females): United States National Academy of Sciences.
• 100 milligrams per day: Japan National Institute of Health and Nutrition.
• 110 mg/day (males) and 95 mg/day (females): European Food Safety Authority

Biosynthesis:-
The vast majority of animals and plants are able to synthesize vitamin C,
through a sequence of enzyme-driven steps, which convert monosaccharides to vitamin C.
Yeasts do not make L-ascorbic acid but rather its stereoisomer, erythorbic acid. In plants, this
is accomplished through the conversion of mannose or galactose to ascorbic acid. In animals, the
starting material is glucose. In some species that synthesize ascorbate in the liver
(including mammals and perching birds), the glucose is extracted from glycogen; ascorbate
synthesis is a glycogenolysis-dependent process. In humans and in animals that cannot
synthesize vitamin C, the enzyme L-gulonolactone oxidase (GULO), that catalysis the last step
in the biosynthesis, is highly mutated and non-functional.