What are bioflavonoids?

Flavonoids or bioflavonoids are natural products widely distributed in the vegetable kingdom and currently consumed in large amounts in the average Western diet.

One called vitamin P, bioflavonoids are a group of natural substances in fruits, vegetables, flowers and grains. Fruit sources include lemons, grape fruit, oranges and to a lesser extent, limes. Other fruit sources are apricots, cherries, grapes, blackcurrant, plums, blueberries, blackberries, pears, and papayas.

They are water soluble. While they often appear as constituents of vitamin C, they are not present in synthetic forms of the vitamin.

Since most of them have a yellow. Orange color they are referred to as flavonoids, derived from the Latin word ‘flavus’ for yellow.

Some of the better-known flavonoids are hesperidin, rutin, naringin, according to the Foods & Nutrition Encyclopedia. Citrin is a flavone found primarily in citrus fruit. Hesperidin is a bioflavonoid found in the skins and peels of citrus fruits. Rutin occurs in buckwheat.
What are bioflavonoids?

Food sources of tocopherol

All eight forms of vitamin E (α-, β-, γ- and δ-tocopherols and tocotrienols) occurs naturally in foods, but relatively few foods have a high α-tocopherol concentration.

Generally, the richest sources are vegetables oils. Wheat germ oil, safflower oil, and sunflower oil contain predominantly α-tocopherol, while soy and corn oils have mainly γ-tocopherol.

Major sources of α-tocopherol in the American diet include vegetable oils, nuts, whole grains and green leafy vegetables.

Note that vegetable oils are also the richest sources of polyunsaturated fatty acids, which α-tocopherol protects.

Tocopherols exert their greatest effect in protection of animals fats (such as tallow) carotenoids, and vitamin A.

Tocopherols also functions as antioxidants in bacon, baked goods, butterfat, lard, margarine, rapeseed oil, safflower oil, and sunflower seed oil.

In United States, the average intake of α-tocopherol from food is approximately 8 mg daily for men and 6 mg daily for women, these levels are well below the RDA of 15 mg/day of RRR- α-tocopherol.
Food sources of tocopherol

Food sources of niacin (vitamin B3)

Niacin (nicotinic acid) is one of vitamin B. This compound is part of an enzyme system regulating reduction reactions in the body.

It is also a compound that dilates blood vessels. Deficiency of niacin causes pellagra (a disease that causes diarrhea, dermatitis, nervous disorders, and sometimes death).

In general, niacin is widespread in foodstuff. Cereals seeds, meat and fish are good food sources of niacin, which converts trigonelline.

All foods containing complete protein, such as the above mentioned, and also milk and eggs, are good source of the precursor of niacin, tryptophan. Tryptophan an amino acid present in some of these foods, can be converted to niacin in the body.

Lean meat, poultry, and peanuts are good sources of both niacin and tryptophan, as are beans, peas, other legumes, most nuts, and several whole grain or enriched cereal products.

The niacin vitamers in foods include nicotinic and nicotinamide, which occur in limited quantities in the free form, and their coenzymes, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate.
Food sources of niacin (vitamin B3)

Vitamin B of Thiamin

The B vitamins are water soluble. Thiamin or vitamin B1, the structural formula consists of a pyrimidine ring and a thiazole moiety linked by a methylene (CH2) bridge.

Thiamin is essential for proper energy production in every cell of the body but especially in the heart and brain. This vitamin is involved in all bodily oxidations that lead to the formation of carbon dioxide. It is necessary for nerve function, appetite, and normal digestion. It is also required for growth, fertility, and lactation.

The need for thiamin was first realized in the late 1800s, by Dutchman, C. Eijkman, when it was discovered that fowl fed diet of cooked, polished rice developed neurologic problems.

The symptoms of vitamin deficiency are retardation of growth, palpitation and enlargement of the heart, and hypertension. Severe efficiency was discovered as the cause of a syndrome known as beri-beri.

Thiamin

The various effects of a disturbance of the nerve centers such as forgetfulness or difficulty in thinking are other manifestations of vitamin B1 deficiency.

The vitamin is often lacking in the diet because much of the naturally occurring amounts of it in food are destroyed during the processing of the food.

Thiamin is widely distributed in foods, including meat (especially pork), legumes and whole, fortified or enriched grain products, cereals and breads.

Yeasts, wheat germ and soy milk also contain significant amounts of the vitamin.

The RDA for adult men aged 19 years and older is 1.2 mgs; for adult women of the same age, the RDA is 1.1 mgs per day.

Thiamin intake recommendations are 1.4 mgs per day during pregnancy and 1.5 mgs per day during lactation.
Vitamin B of Thiamin

The role of vitamin B Complex in human body

The vitamins consist of a group of water-soluble vitamins that include B1 (thiamin), B2 (riboflavin), B1 (niacin and niacinamide), B6 (pyridoxine), B12 (cobalamin), folic acid, pantothenic acid, biotin, choline, inositol and PABA (para-aminobenzoic acid).

The grouping of these compounds under the term B complex is based upon their common source their close relationship in vegetable and animal tissues and their functional relationships.

The B vitamins help to maintain the health of the nerves, skin, eyes, hair, liver and mouth and well as healthy muscle tone in the gastrointestinal tract and proper brain function.

Each vitamin has its own unique biological role to play and its own properties. B vitamin also work together in the body and many of them are found in the same foods.

They act as coenzymes, helping enzymes to react chemically with other substances and are involved in energy production.

They may be useful for alleviating depression or anxiety as well.

The B vitamins are most plentiful in whole grains such as wheat, rice, oats, and rye; and liver. They are also found in green leafy vegetables, meats, poultry, fish, eggs, nuts and beans.

Since the B vitamin work best as a team, it’s important to take a B-complex supplement when taking additional amounts of any single B vitamin. They are also vital in the metabolism of carbohydrates, fats and protein in the body. The B vitamins are important for antibody production and red blood cells.

While B vitamins are an important part of the diet and are needed to help avoid many health conditions, there is not enough scientific evidence to determine if B vitamins can reduce the risk of cancer.
The role of vitamin B Complex in human body

What are the functions of Vitamin K in human body?

The term ‘vitamin K’ is a generic term used for all compounds possessing cofactor activity for γ-glutamylcarboxylase.

Two forms of vitamin K exist in nature: vitamin K1 and vitamin K2. Vitamin K1 or phylloquinone, is found in plant foods. Vitamin K2, or menaquinone, is synthesized by intestinal bacteria.

Vitamin K is fat soluble. Vitamin K plays a crucial role in hemostasis. It is necessary for the synthesis of prothrombin (factors II) and several other hepatic clotting factors.

All these factors and proteins plus calcium are key links in the chain of events producing a blood clot. 

Although the role of vitamin K in the coagulation process is the most well known, vitamin K has additional metabolic functions including bone mineralization, vascular calcification and cell growth.

Vitamin K also was found participates with vitamin D in synthesizing the bone protein, which helps to regulate serum calcium levels.

Leafy vegetables, cabbage, spinach, cauliflower, broccoli, fruit and liver are especially good sources of vitamin K, although moderate amounts are found in many other vegetables, as well, as in cereals.

A deficiency of vitamin K causes hypoprothrombinemia and a tendency to bleed excessively. Newborn hemorrhagic disease is the classic example of vitamin K deficiency.

It is believed that humans ordinarily receive adequate amounts of vitamin K in the diet.
What are the functions of Vitamin K in human body?

Carbohydrate group of food

Carbohydrates are polyhydroxy aldehydes, ketones, alcohols, acids, their simple derivatives and their polymers having linkages of the acetal type. Most carbohydrates conform to the general formula (CH2O)n, but the classification of carbohydrates includes compounds that are not true hydrates as the names implies. 

For example, deoxyribose contains 5 carbon atoms, 10 hydrogen, but only 4 oxygen rather than 5 as is customary for pentose. Moreover, some compounds that are properly classified as carbohydrates in terms of chemical properties contain nitrogen or sulfur addition to carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen.

Carbohydrate biosynthesis in plants starting from carbon disaccharide and water with the help of light energy i.e. photosynthesis is the basis for the existence of all other organisms which depend on the intake of organic substance with food.

The major carbohydrate containing foods in the human diet are: cereal, sweeteners, root crops, pulses, vegetables, fruit, and milk products. Carbohydrates play a major role in human diets, comprising some 40-75% of energy intake. Their nutritional energy value amounts to 17 kJ/g or kcal/g. Their most important nutritional property is digestibility in the small intestine.

Carbohydrates can be classified based on their chemical structure and/or based on their physiological effects. There are three main groups, monosaccharide, or simple sugars; oligosaccharides, of which the most prevalent in nature are the disaccharides; and polysaccharides the most complex of the carbohydrates. 

Defining carbohydrates by chemical structure, does not take into account their physiological differing response, such as differences in satiety value, gastric emptying times and effects on glucose and insulin levels.

Starch is by far the most important source of carbohydrates in the human diet amounting to approximately 50% of total carbohydrate in the United States, but often as much as 75% total carbohydrates in some of the developing countries.

Many starches do not have the functional properties needed to impart or maintain desired qualities on food products. As a result, some starches have been modified to obtain the functional properties required. These type modified starches, also known as derivates.

Sucrose ranks next in important comprising about 25% of carbohydrates intake. In the last 70 years the intake of complex carbohydrates in the diet of United States has decreased, and the intake of sucrose has markedly increased.
Carbohydrate group of food