Vitamins

Compounds, which can´t be produced by our metabolism and have to be taken up in small amounts.

The figure shows one of the best-known vitamins, ascorbic acid (vitamin C). (The proton responsible for the acidic character of this vitamin is marked in red.) Ascorbic acid is participating in the detoxification of reactive oxygen species in our body. As in the case of many other vitamins, the lack of vitamin C in our food leads to severe diseases (scurvy).