Vitamins

Abstract

Vitamin is one important group of nutrients that determines the nutritional value of foods. These compounds play extremely important role in many metabolisms in organism as cofactors of various enzymes and long-term vitamin deficiency can cause various diseases and even death. Besides, some vitamins, such as Vc and sulfur-containing compounds, also markedly affect the color and flavor of foods. This chapter introduces the structures, properties, physiological functions and deficiency symptoms, and stability of the vitamins that have been identified one by one. Then, the factors that influence vitamin contents in foods and the changes of vitamins during processing and storage are discussed. © 2012 Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.