Vitamins

Vitamins are a group of organic nutrients of various nature required in small quantities for multiple biochemical reactions for the growth, survival and reproduction of the organism, and which, generally, cannot be synthesized by the body and must therefore be supplied by the diet. The most prominent function of the vitamins is to serve as coenzymes (or prosthetic group) for enzymatic reactions. The discovery of the vitamins began with experiments performed by Hopkins at the beginning of the twentieth century; he fed rats on a de¿ned diet providing the then known nutrients: fats, proteins, carbohydrates, and mineral salts. The animals failed to grow, but the addition of a small amount of milk to the diet both permitted the animals to maintain normal growth and restored growth to the animals that had previously been fed the de¿ned diet.