Vitamins - What are they and how do they help the body?

What are vitamins?

Vitamins are substances our body needs to function. However, they do not make their own class of substance, since they are usually very complex, but very different, even the origin of their name is misleading, vita from - Life and Amine, but not all vitamins are also amines [1]

What are their properties and tasks in the body?

Vitamins contribute to virtually every process in the body. They are important for the utilization of carbohydrates, and thus essential for the energy conversion, the utilization of proteins, for the integration, shaping and transformation, as well as the utilization of minerals, such as copper, iron, zinc, sodium, calcium etc. There are 13 essential Vitamins are known, 11 of which the body can not produce itself (the two exceptions are vitamin D3 and B3) [2]. Plants do not need to eat vitamins via external routes, they can produce all they need themselves. There are vitamins that the body can store, they are fat-soluble and can be stored in the tissues until they are needed, these are vitamins A, D, E, and K. The other vitamins are water-soluble, and so the body can not These are vitamin C and all of the B complex, with the exception of vitamin B12. The vitamins help in addition to the utilization of substances for cell renewal, u.A. in skin as well as hair, nails and muscle tissue. They are also used as active nerve protection and for the correct function of these. A vitamin deficiency can therefore lead to physical problems such as hypersensitivity of nerves, but also to mental health problems such as mood swings. In addition, they act as so-called radical scavengers [3].

What are their chemical properties?

Abb. 1 Vitamin B12 (umgangssprachlich Cobalamin), ein beispiel für die mögliche Komplexität von Vitaminen

The vitamins do not belong to any exact, individual, substance class, they are often quite complex molecules and are therefore quite difficult to categorize. The term "vitamins" only describes essential substances that the body needs for just about anything, but what passes as a vitamin is often unclear, which explains the missing letters and numbers (eg B4, B8 or F, G, H, I and J). Because they are chemically distinct, they perform different, highly complex, biochemical tasks and undergo some enzyme and protein cycles. Fact is, vitamin deficiencies have serious consequences for the body, and cosmetically for the external appearance, such as skin condition and hair. Some vitamins absorb so-called free radicals from the air. Free radicals are atoms or molecules created by atmospheric reactions or ionization by ultraviolet rays, which attack other non-radical atoms and molecules and impose electrons on them to balance their own charge produced by ionization. This process is also called

Abb. 2 Ozonmolekül

Oxidation. Ozone (O3) is partly produced in the air by UV radiation and nitrogen monoxide (NO), which is split again by UV radiation, which produces oxygen (O2) and an oxygen radical (O-). These radicals can attack and damage our organism. They are, for example, the reason why iron rusts in the air, so you can say that we are rusting from the air by radicals. As these radicals oxidize the iron, they partially oxidize our body, and so on. the skin. Radical scavengers such as e.g. Vitamin E or C scavenge radicals, and are oxidized instead of our cells. Although this process turns the vitamins into radicals, they are very slow to react and cause no further damage. The body can also recycle and recycle the vitamins [4].

How do vitamins get into cosmetics and what do they do?

Different plants contain certain vitamins in high concentrations. Vitamins found in natural cosmetics include vitamins A, E and C as well as vitamins B2, B3, B7 and B9. They contribute to a healthy complexion, as they protect the nerves, and thus protect against skin irritation, they contribute to cell renewal, to produce important proteins and enzymes, with collagen and elastin, which are responsible for the elasticity and stability of the skin, and the capture of free radicals in [5].

Sources:

Wikipedia^[4][5]

Scientific Article on Vitamins^[1][2][3]