Bioavailability and Analysis of Vitamins in Foods

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xii

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2. Physiological aspects of vitamin bioavailability

   • G. F. M. Ball

   Pages 1-31

3. Laboratory procedures and some of the analytical techniques used in vitamin determinations

   • G. F. M. Ball

   Pages 33-113

4. Vitamin A and the provitamin A carotenoids

   • G. F. M. Ball

   Pages 115-161

5. Vitamin D

   • G. F. M. Ball

   Pages 163-193

6. Vitamin E

   • G. F. M. Ball

   Pages 195-239

7. Vitamin K

   • G. F. M. Ball

   Pages 241-266

8. Thiamin (vitamin B1)

   • G. F. M. Ball

   Pages 267-292

9. Riboflavin and other flavins (vitamin B2)

   • G. F. M. Ball

   Pages 293-317

10. Niacin and tryptophan

    • G. F. M. Ball

    Pages 319-359

11. Vitamin B6

    • G. F. M. Ball

    Pages 361-407

12. Pantothenic acid

    • G. F. M. Ball

    Pages 409-422

13. Biotin

    • G. F. M. Ball

    Pages 423-437

14. Folate

    • G. F. M. Ball

    Pages 439-496

15. Vitamin B12

    • G. F. M. Ball

    Pages 497-515

16. Vitamin C

    • G. F. M. Ball

    Pages 517-560

17. Back Matter

    Pages 561-569

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Every country in the world is concerned with the nutritional status of its population and in utilizing its natural food resources in the most effective way possible. Surveys based on food intakes and food compositional data are being conducted with the object of establishing recommended intakes of vitamins. These recommendations are constantly being changed as new knowledge comes to light. Analytical techniques using physicochemical and microbiological methods have been largely developed to determine the total vitamin content of a food commodity or diet using the most rigorous extraction method commensurate with the stability of the vitamin. The extraction procedures frequently involve prolonged heating of suitably prepared food samples at extremes of pH to liberate vitamins from chemically bound forms in the food matrix or to remove a preponderance of fat from fatty foods. For several vitamins the data obtained by these means grossly overestimate the nutritional value of the food because the human digestive system fails to liberate bound vitamin forms for subsequent absorption by the intestine. This statement is borne out by reports of vitamin deficiency in situations where the dietary supply of vitamin is adequate on the basis of conventional analysis. Various research labora­ tories are directing their effort toward the estimation of bioavailable vitamin, i. e. the proportion of vitamin in the food which is available for utilization by the body. So far, few data have been published and there are many gaps in the knowledge required to interpret experimental results.

• Absorption
• Vitamin
• Vitamin C
• Vitamin D
• food
• nutrition

• Windsor, Berkshire, England

  G. F. M. Ball

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