vitaminn.
/ˈvɪtəmɪn/, /ˈvʌɪtəmɪn/, U.S. /ˈvaɪdəmən/ 1. Any of a diverse group of organic compounds of which small quantities are needed in the diet because they have a distinct biochemical role, often as coenzymes, and cannot be adequately synthesized by the body, so that in most cases a deficiency produces characteristic symptoms or disease.
ΚΠ
1912 C. Funk in Jrnl. State Med. 20 342 It is now known that all these diseases, with the exception of pellagra, can be prevented and cured by the addition of certain preventive substances; the deficient substances, which are of the nature of organic bases, we will call ‘vitamines’; and we will speak of a beri-beri or scurvy vitamine, which means a substance preventing the special disease.
1915 Times Lit. Suppl. 11 Nov. 400/3 The point about vitamines is that without them the animal ceases to grow or becomes diseased on a physiologically pure diet.
1916 McCollum & Kennedy in Jrnl. Biol. Chem. 24 493 We would..suggest the desirability of discontinuing the use of the term vitamine, and the substitution of the term fat-soluble A and water-soluble B for the two classes of unknown substances concerned in inducing growth.
1920 J. C. Drummond in Biochem. Jrnl. 14 660 The criticism usually raised against Funk's word Vitamine is that the termination ‘-ine’ is one strictly employed in chemical nomenclature to denote substances of a basic character, whereas there is no evidence which supports his original idea that these indispensable dietary constituents are amines... The suggestion is now advanced that the final ‘-e’ be dropped, so that the resulting word Vitamin is acceptable under the standard scheme of nomenclature..which permits a neutral substance of undefined composition to bear a name ending in ‘-in’. If this suggestion is adopted, it is recommended that the somewhat cumbrous nomenclature introduced by McCollum (Fat-soluble A, Water-soluble B), be dropped, and that the substances be spoken of as Vitamin A, B, C, etc.
1928 A. B. Callow Food & Health 39 Compared with the total daily ration of food, the amount of vitamin we need is almost negligible.
1932 C. L. Metcalf & W. P. Flint Fund. Insect Life xii. 465 Green plants can..manufacture complicated proteins, carbohydrates, fats, and vitamines from the nitrates, phosphates, sulfates, and water of the soil.
1966 V. B. Wigglesworth Life of Insects iv. 75 Cockroaches whose symbionts have been killed out by treatment with antibiotics must have extra vitamins in their diet.
1974 Daily Tel. 15 Feb. 17/4 Vitamins have received so much publicity as an essential factor for healthy living that there has been a tendency to forget that in excess some of them at least can be harmful.
1982 F. Ungar in T. M. Devlin Textbk. Biochem. xv. 719 Since the rat has this enzyme and ascorbic acid can be synthesized in its tissues, ascorbic acid is not a vitamin for this species.
2. figurative.
ΚΠ
1921 Spectator 16 Apr. 492/2 A book..so full of the vitamines of literature.
1971 Where Nov. 334/1 A diet only of football annuals would be deficient of almost every known reading vitamin.
Compounds
C1. With following (or occasionally preceding) capital letter, denoting a particular vitamin or group of vitamins.Some designations were abandoned when the substance concerned was shown to be a mixture, was not confirmed as a new vitamin, or became known under a chemical name.
vitamin A n. either or both of two closely related fat-soluble vitamins, A₁ and A₂, esp. the former; = retinol n.2; vitamin A₁, an alcohol that is present (as fatty acid esters) in egg-yolk, liver, butter, and milk, is also formed in the body from carotenoids present in green vegetables and stored in the liver, and is a component of the visual pigment rhodopsin; a deficiency of vitamin A₁ leads to night blindness and anæmia and ultimately xerophthalmia and blindness, vitamin A₂, the analogous component of the visual pigment porphyropsin in freshwater fish.
ΚΠ
1920Vitamin A [see sense 1].
1937 J. R. Edisbury in Nature 7 Aug. 234/1 A substance apparently identical with the 693 mμ chromogen can replace the vitamin A of rhodopsin without loss of physiological function... It..seems desirable provisionally to designate as ‘vitamin A2’ the 693 mμ chromogen.
1950 Sci. News 15 17 Kühne found, when visual purple is acted on by light, that a new substance is formed which he called visual yellow. The latter has now been shown to be closely related to, if not identical with, the aldehyde of vitamin A1, called retinene-1.
1960 Jrnl. Amer. Chem. Soc. 82 5581/1 The pure substance hitherto known as vitamin A1 or axerophthol shall be designated retinol.
1968 A. White et al. Princ. Biochem. (ed. 4) xl. 906 Vitamin A2 differs from A1 by having one additional conjugated double bond in the ring.
1976 H. R. Schiffman Sensation & Perception xii. 184/2 When the eye is kept in the dark, vitamin A joins with opsin to reconstitute rhodopsin.
1982 S. G. Chaney in T. M. Devlin Textbk. Biochem. xxvi. 1202 Vitamin A is also apparently required for mobilization of iron from the liver.
vitamin B n. any or all of several chemically unrelated water-soluble vitamins mostly occurring together in liver, cereals, and yeast and discovered by separation from the original ‘vitamin B’; so vitamin B complex or group.
ΚΠ
1920 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 31 July 151/1 The water-soluble B vitamine in rice polishings is very stable.
1920 [see sense 1]. 1934 Nature 31 Mar. 498/2 The view has already been considered..that these two classes of dissimilar skin changes are to be ascribed to a deficiency not only of vitamin B 2 but also of another component of the vitamin B complex.
1953 D. M. Dunlop Textbk. Med. Treatm. (ed. 6) 398 Three other components of the vitamin B complex have been reported to have therapeutic effects; pantothenic acid.., pyridoxin..and biotin.
1967 Martindale's Extra Pharmacopoeia (ed. 25) 122/1 Dried yeast is used for the prevention and treatment of vitamin B deficiency.
1969 R. F. Chapman Insects v. 74 The B vitamins thiamine, riboflavin, nicotinic acid, pyridoxine and pantothenic acid are essential to most insects.
1983 A. Tull Food & Nutrition i. 22/2 Like the other B vitamins..nicotinic acid is also an important factor in the release of energy from food..by oxidation.
vitamin B₁ n. = thiamine n. 3a.
ΚΠ
1928 Chick & Roscoe in Biochem. Jrnl. 22 790 Experiments..confirmed the conclusion of Goldberger and his colleagues..that the water-soluble B vitamin..had two components. (1) Vitamin B1, or the antineuritic, less heat-stable vitamin... (2) Vitamin B2, a more heat~stable vitamin..in the absence of which the animal fails to grow.
1955 Sci. News Let. 26 Mar. 194/1 In each group some mothers got vitamin C (ascorbic acid) pills; some got thiamine, or vitamin B-1 pills; some got pills containing thiamine, iron, and riboflavin and niacinamide which are B vitamins; and some got placebos.
1974 R. Passmore & J. S. Robson Compan. Med. Stud. III. xxiv. 26/2 Both wet and dry beriberi occur among chronic alcoholics whose diet can be deficient in vitamin B1.
vitamin B₁₂ n. cobalamin or any of several derivatives of it, cobalt, containing compounds synthesized by micro-organisms and present in food of animal origin (esp. meat, eggs, and dairy products), a deficiency leading to pernicious anæmia and neuropathy; cf. extrinsic factor at extrinsic adj. 3c.
ΚΠ
1948 M. S. Shorb in Science 16 Apr. 397/1 A crystalline compound, vitamin B12, has been isolated from liver..and has been shown to be highly active hematopoietically..upon cases of pernicious anemia.
1950 E. A. Kaczka et al. in Science 29 Sept. 355 The name cobalamin designates all the vitamin B12 molecule except the cyano group, and..vitamin B12 becomes cyano-cobalamin, and vitamin B12a, hydroxo-cobalamin.
1961 New Scientist 23 Feb. 457/2 The cobalt..had a selective action. Experiments showed that it was taken up by the flora of the rumen of sheep and cattle in the synthesis of vitamin B12.
1982 S. G. Chaney in T. M. Devlin Textbk. Biochem. xxvi. 1225 The liver stores up to a 6-year supply of vitamin B12. Thus, deficiencies..are extremely rare.
vitamin B₂ n. = riboflavin n.
ΚΠ
1928Vitamin B2 [see vitamin B₁ n.].
1933 Jrnl. Amer. Chem. Soc. 55 2927 Several similarities suggest its close relationship [sc. that of pantothenic acid] to vitamin G (B2).
1934 [see vitamin B n.]. 1967 H. A. Guthrie Introd. Nutrition xii. 236/1 Riboflavin, which has also been known as vitamin B2, vitamin G, and the yellow vitamin, was recognized in 1917 when it became clear that vitamin B retained some growth-promoting properties after its anti-beriberi properties had been destroyed by heat.
vitamin B₆ n. any or all of the compounds pyridoxine, pyridoxal, and pyridoxamine, esp. the first (the dietary form of the vitamin), deficiency of which is accompanied by symptoms that can include irritability, nervousness, or convulsions.
ΚΠ
1934 P. György in Nature 31 Mar. 499/1 We have for the time being named this ‘rat pellagra preventive factor’ in its narrow sense vitamin B6.
1955 D. M. Hegsted in F. C. Blanck Handbk. Food & Agric. ix. 292 The natural occurring deficiency of vitamin B6 has probably not been seen in any species other than recent reports of its development in infants fed certain prepared formulas.
1970 L. J. Harris in J. Needham Chem. of Life vi. 164 In 1934, a second component of the vitamin B2 complex, at first called vitamin B6..and now generally known as pyridoxin, was identified.
1970 R. W. McGilvery Biochemistry vi. 120 The substituted pyridine ring of pyridoxal phosphate..cannot be synthesized by vertebrates, and its dietary precursors are lumped together as vitamin B6, which includes pyridoxal, pyridoxamine, and the corresponding alcohol, pyridoxine.
1974 Nature 9 Aug. 502/2 Pyridoxine, the major dietary form of vitamin B6, is rapidly converted in the body to pyridoxal phosphate.., the coenzyme form.
1983 J. Katz in Kaye & Rose Fund. Internal Med. cxxxvi. 904/1 Dietary and primary pyridoxine (vitamin B6) deficiencies are rare.
vitamin C n. ascorbic acid; a water-soluble sugar, C6H8O6, which is present in citrus fruits, green vegetables, and tomatoes, and in man is required for the synthesis of collagen and the maintenance of connective tissue, its deficiency leading to scurvy.
ΚΠ
1919 J. C. Drummond in Biochem. Jrnl. 13 77 The diet has been seriously, if not totally, deficient in the antiscorbutic factor or ‘water-soluble C’.]
1920 [see sense 1]. 1921 Jrnl. Industr. & Engin. Chem. Dec. 1115/1 We know that the antiscorbutic vitamine is water-soluble; indeed, it has been called the water-soluble C vitamine.
1942 Ann. Reg. 1941 344 Work on prothrombin, vitamins C, K, and P,..greatly advanced knowledge of haemorrhagic diseases.
1966 E. Birney Sel. Poems ii. 61 A hotelroom all to myself with a fan and a box of Vitamin C.
1983 D. J. Weatherall et al. Oxf. Textbk. Med. I. viii. 24/2 There is no convincing evidence for the claims that large doses of vitamin C (4 g or more daily) prevent or decrease severity of the common cold; the evidence for protection against cancer is stronger, but not conclusive.
vitamin D n. each or all of the fat-soluble vitamins that cure or prevent rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults, one or other being required for the correct metabolism of calcium; spec. vitamin D₂ [named in German by A. Windaus et al. 1931, in Ann. d. Chem. CDLXXXIX. 269] , a compound, C28H44O, made by the ultraviolet irradiation of ergosterol and added to dairy products; also called calciferol or ergocalciferol; vitamin D₃ [named in German by A. Windaus et al. 1936, in Zeitschr. f. Physiol. Chem. CCXLI. 102] a closely related compound, C27H44O, formed in the skin by ultraviolet light and present in egg-yolk, liver, and fish-liver oils; also called cholecalciferol.
ΚΠ
1921 Funk & Dubin in Proc. Soc. Exper. Biol. & Med. 1921–2 19 15 It is possible in most cases to effect an almost quantitative separation of the B-vitamine..from another substance, which we provisionally have called vitamine D.
1928 A. B. Callow Food & Health 51 Ergosterol..was present in minute quantities in what was formerly thought to be pure cholesterol... When ergosterol is irradiated it acquires the property of preventing or curing rickets, that is to say, it becomes vitamin D.
1932 Chem. Abstr. 26 1015 The isolation of cryst. vitamin D1.
1932 Chem. Abstr. 26 1015 An added note states that vitamin D2 has been isolated.
1936 Chem. Abstr. 30 6423 The name vitamin D3 is proposed for this substance.
1953 J. S. Fruton & S. Simmonds Gen. Biochem. xxxviii. 903 The term vitamin D1 has been discarded since the material to which it was first applied has been found to be a mixture of calciferol and several sterols.
1976 H. Campion et al. in B. E. C. Nordin Calcium, Phosphate & Magnesium Metabolism xii. 445 The compounds known as vitamin D have in common a unique arrangement of three carbon-carbon double bonds, two of which connect a hydroxylated cyclohexane ring to a substituted hydrindane system.
1983 D. J. Weatherall et al. Oxf. Textbk. Med. I. x. 44/2 In most respects these vitamin Ds are comparable in their metabolism and their actions.
vitamin E n. = tocopherol n.
ΚΠ
1925 H. M. Evans in Proc. National Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 11 373 The evidence..is thus conclusively in favor of the existence of a new vitamine or food accessory to which the designation of fat soluble E may be given. [Note] We have adopted the letter E as the next serial alphabetic designation, the antirachitic artanine now being known as D.
1948 L. C. Martin & M. Hynes Clin. Endocrinol. viii. 157 Vitamin E deficiency..produces loss of sperm-motility in rats and is followed by atrophy of spermatogenic tissue and final loss of the sex instincts.
1968 R. Passmore & J. S. Robson Compan. Med. Stud. I. x. 9/1 Vitamin E is a mixture of tocopherols, which are yellow oily liquids remarkably stable to heat.
1983 D. J. Weatherall et al. Oxf. Textbk. Med. II. xix. 75/2 Vitamin E is necessary to prevent auto-oxidation of the unsaturated fatty acids in the red cell membrane.
vitamin G n. chiefly U.S. = vitamin B n.; now rare.
ΚΠ
1929 Sherman & Sandels in Proc. Soc. Exper. Biol. & Med. 1928–9 26 536 Experiments with reference to the more heat-stable factor of the vitamin B group (factor P-P, vitamin B2 or G).
1934 Jrnl. Biol. Chem. 106 433 The vitamin G concentrate..was prepared by extracting hog livers with boiling water, [etc.].
1949 R. A. Gortner & W. A. Gortner Outl. Biochem. (ed. 3) xxxvi. 925 Riboflavin (lactoflavin or ovoflavin or vitamin G) is 6,7-dimethyl~isoalloxazine-9- d-riboside.
1967Vitamin G [see vitamin B₂ n.]. vitamin H n. [named in German by P. Györgi 1931, in Zeitschr. f. ärztliche Fortbildung XXVIII. 379/2, < haut skin] = biotin n.
ΚΠ
1937 L. E. Booher in Jrnl. Biol. Chem. 119 223 The vitamin concerned..is a relatively heat-stable component of the vitamin B complex... It will be referred to here as vitamin H.
1959 Chambers's Encycl. XIV. 350/2 Biotin is a..factor..identified with the so-called vitamin H..or anti-egg-white-injury factor.
vitamin K n. either or both of two related fat-soluble derivatives of naphthoquinone, vitamin K₁ (= phylloquinone n.) and vitamin K₂ (menaquinone, C41H56O2), one or other of which is required for proper clotting of the blood, the former occurring in green vegetables and the latter being synthesized by intestinal bacteria.
ΚΠ
1935 H. Dam in Nature 27 Apr. 653/1 I therefore suggest the term vitamin K for the antihæmorrhagic factor.
1939 Jrnl. Amer. Chem. Soc. 61 1295/1 (heading) The isolation of vitamins K1 and K2.
1939 Chem. Abstr. 33 8191 The light yellow vitamin K1 from alfalfa, named by Dam..‘α-phylloquinone’, (I) crystallizes at low temp.
1947 Radiology 49 304/1 Vitamin K and transfusions of whole blood were ineffective in reducing clotting time.
1975 J. Marks Guide to Vitamins 71 Domestic animals suffering from warfarin poisoning should be treated with vitamin K1.
1983 J. Katz in Kaye & Rose Fund. Internal Med. cxxxvi. 905/2 A deficiency of vitamin K cannot occur solely from an inadequate diet. Intestinal bacteria synthesize the vitamin.
vitamin P n. any or all of the flavonoids present in food plants, formerly thought to be necessary in the diet for the integrity of the capillaries.
ΚΠ
1936 Rusznyák & Szent-Györgyi in Nature 4 July 27/2 We propose to give the name ‘vitamin P’ to the substance responsible for the action on vascular permeability.
1949 Jrnl. Pharmacol. & Exper. Therapeutics 95 399 At a recent symposium on vitamin P it was suggested..that the generic term ‘Flavonoids’ be used to refer to the flavonols, flavanones and related compounds.
1955 Sci. News Let. 26 Feb. 141/1 The chemicals are now called bioflavonoids. One of them..has been named vitamin P or Citrin.
1969 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 25 Jan. 235/1 No condition representing lack of vitamin P has ever been satisfactorily demonstrated.
1978 F. H. Meyers et al. Rev. Med. Pharmacol. (ed. 6) xli. 449/1 The flavonoids or vitamin P are of interest in relation to the question of how drug efficacy is evaluated rather than because of any nutritional effect.
C2. General attributive.
a.
vitamin capsule n.
ΚΠ
1958 Listener 2 Oct. 523/1 Perhaps all those compact references at the foot of the page..are vitamin capsules of chapter for verse to insatiable scholars.
1965 M. Spark Mandelbaum Gate iii. 61 Freddy..carried small red vitamin capsules about with him to swallow after meals taken outside the British Isles.
vitamin content n.
ΚΠ
1928 A. B. Callow Food & Health 22 The food value of different fats varies..according to the chemical constitution (to neglect for the moment the subject of vitamin content.
vitamin cream n.
ΚΠ
1938 Encycl. Brit. Bk. of Year 588/1 Preparations that have but recently come to the fore include..the group of hormone and vitamin creams, etc., known collectively as ‘biological’ preparations.
1979 P. Ferris Talk to me about Eng. iii. 133 She took the vitamin cream.
vitamin deficiency n.
ΚΠ
1920 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 31 July 147/1 It is..still a hypothesis that the particular disease depends upon vitamine deficiency.
1946 R. Lehmann Gipsy's Baby and Other Stories 149 My brain..just doesn't function any more. Don't you think it's some vitamin deficiency?
1980 Times 15 Dec. 1/3 One of the hunger strikers..is in danger of irreversible loss of sight because of a vitamin deficiency.
vitamin pill n.
ΚΠ
1945 N. Mitford Pursuit of Love xv. 121 A packing-case full of vitamin pills.
1981 D. Uhnak False Witness (1982) xi. 90 The customers..gulped down vitamin pills with swallows of juice.
vitamin shot n. (see shot n.1 7g(a)).
ΚΠ
1971 J. Philips Escape a Killer (1972) i. ii. 25 I always feel as if I'd had a vitamin shot when you turn up.
1980 J. Gardner Garden of Weapons ii. iii. 139 Mistochenkov looked in startlingly good health. ‘It's the vitamin shots they're giving me,’ he told Herbie.
vitamin tablet n.
ΚΠ
1951 M. Kennedy Lucy Carmichael ii. i. 76 She..ended by saying I didn't look very well and she would send me some vitamin tablets.
1982 M. McMullen Better off Dead ii. xiv. 171 A little saucer was placed before him with his vitamin tablets, the B-complex and the C.
vitamin therapy n.
ΚΠ
1969 Listener 1 May 627/2 He thinks the cure of Tobit's blindness must have been either a colossal coincidence or a primeval case of vitamin therapy, by the liberal administration of fish-guts.
1972 Village Voice (N.Y.) 1 June 36/5 Dr. Krippner told me just a few of the non-drugging approaches that could and should be used with children whose classroom behavior is ‘divergent’—vitamin therapy, perceptual-motor therapy, [etc.].
b.
vitamin-containing adj.
ΚΠ
1921 Conquest Sept. 498/2 The only safe rule is this..eat vitamine-containing food on every possible occasion..and avoid, as far as practicable, vitamine-free foods.
vitamin-enriched adj.
ΚΠ
1961 Which? Oct. 270/1 Wholemeal biscuits with a vitamin-enriched filling.
vitamin-free adj.
ΚΠ
1921Vitamin-free [see vitamin-containing adj.].
1956 Nature 11 Feb. 271/1 Aerated cultures of B. cereus 569H were grown at 36° on..vitamin-free casein hydrolysate.
vitamin-poor adj.
ΚΠ
1973 T. Pynchon Gravity's Rainbow i. 170 Nasty little fangs achop and looking to ulcerate the vitamin-poor tissue they came from.
vitamin-rich adj.
ΚΠ
1923 Jrnl. Biol. Chem. 56 333 The fat-soluble, vitamin-rich ration.
1944 J. S. Huxley On Living in Revol. 31 Sweeping measures of social security and welfare—..subsidized housing and vitamin-rich food for the under-privileged,..and so on.
Derivatives
vitaˈminic adj. pertaining to or containing a vitamin or vitamins.
ΚΠ
1926 Chambers's Jrnl. Apr. 291/2 The milk tends to become less and less valuable from the point of view of vitaminic value.
1980 Acta Vitaminologica et Enzymologica II. 75 Drug induced avitaminoses are produced more easily and are more severe if the devitaminizing power of the drug and its dosage are high..and the vitaminic status of the patient is not optimal.
ˈvitaminless adj. rare
ΚΠ
1914 Nature 12 Mar. 42/1 Such vitamineless foods as sterilised milk,..starch, and sugar.
viˈtaminous adj. rare vitaminic; also figurative.
ΚΠ
1914 Nature 12 Mar. 42/1 Vitaminous foods are fresh milk.., whole grains, potatoes, [etc.].
1931 C. Holmes Gram. Arts iii. 27 Life..is the essential thing..and we must not starve ourselves of this vitaminous element.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1986; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
<
n.1912