Assignment 2 Paper.docx - Vitamin C & Health Humans vs....

Vitamin C & Health
Humans vs. Animals
Vitamin C is an essential vitamin, which means that our body cannot produce it. Also
known as ascorbic acid, cevitamic acid, or hexuronic acid, it serves as a component of in a
variety of fruits and vegetables, and can be involved in some metabolic processes of animals .
Vitamin C plays a role in many enzymatic reactions of the human body as well. The only
difference between humans and animals when it comes to Vitamin C is that animals do not have
to obtain Vitamin C from their diet whereas humans have to due to their inability to synthesize
the vitamin. However, only most animals, specifically mammals (excluding flying mammals)
can synthesize Vitamin C. Humans, on the other hand, can either eat a typical vitamin C diet that
would consist of foods ranging from citrus fruits, brussel sprouts and spinach (to name a few) to
oral supplements .
The general scientific purpose of Vitamin C
The structure of Vitamin C is similar to that of a carbohydrate, and it is water-soluble,
meaning it can be dissolved in water, but it is not easily stored, so it must be obtained through
your daily diet. In a chemical reaction, Vitamin C takes on the role of an electron donor, also
known as a reducing agent, and donates two electrons to be further oxidized into
dehydroascorbic acid. This type of reaction that Vitamin C partakes in is called a oxidation-
reduction reaction. Because of this, it is also an antioxidant that fights against free radicals, such
as semidehydroascorbic acid (an acid that vitamin C can possibly be oxidized to before
dehydroascorbic acid), which are produced from sources like the sun, smoke, or radiation that

can harm the human body .
The main purposes of Vitamin C
Involved in many bodily functions, the main purpose of Vitamin C is simple: to assist in
healing the body. First and foremost, it is associated with the creation of collagen, a protein that
helps build your skin, hair, bones, and muscles. Not only is Vitamin C an antioxidant, but it is
also an enzyme cofactor during the synthesis of collagen, because it has the two enzymes —
prolyl hydroxylase and lysyl hydroxylase —to stabilize and give strength to the production of
collagen. Commonly mistaken for being the same, Vitamin C and collagen go hand in hand—
without vitamin C, there cannot be collagen; without collagen, the faster we age. Collagen is also
tied to the idea of normally taking Vitamin C to boost our immune system. As mentioned earlier,