Good afternoon
I am looking for which elements of Mendeljef can be found in vitamins.
As well as other food additives (natural or chemical).
If you could point me in the right direction I’d really appreciate it.
Have a nice day.
Jan Droghmans
Answer
Dear Jan,
Vitamins are defined as substances that an organism needs to survive, but which cannot or cannot sufficiently produce itself. These substances are generally small organic molecules. This means that they are mainly made up of the elements carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur and phosphorus (the last three are not found in all vitamins).
Know that the properties of vitamins have very little to do with the properties of these elements. After all, the properties of molecules are completely different from the properties of the atoms from which they are built. For example, the human body is made up of more than 90% carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur and phosphorus!
Other dietary supplements are often minerals. In other words, these are substances that are inorganic in nature (and not made up of the elements I listed above) and very often contain metal ions. I speak very clearly about metal ions and not about metals. After all, these ions have very different properties than the pure metals. Examples are magnesium, zinc, iron, copper, but also, for example, potassium, sodium and calcium. We generally need these in very small amounts (for example, on average we get less than a thousandth of a gram of copper per day) and we usually get them easily from our diet.
Regards,
Benjamin
Answered by
Dr. Benjamien Moeyaert
Biochemistry, biophysics, spectroscopy, microscopy, neuroscience, virology, gene therapy
Old Market 13 3000 Leuven
https://www.kuleuven.be/
.