Vitamin K comprises derivatives of 1,4-naphthiquinone. Naturally occurring forms are equipped with structures possessing the unsaturated isoprenoid side chain linked to naphthoquinones at crabon-3.
Vitamin K also fat soluble. It is essential for the synthesis of prothrombin a compound involved in the clotting of blood.
Vitamin K is mostly needed to help to stop bleeding, but it has some other jobs as well.
It is a cofactor specific to the formation of –carboxyglutamyl residues from specific glutamate residues in certain proteins.
The most important is the crucial role vitamin K, plays building bones. Vitamin K is needed to help hold onto the calcium in bones and make sure it’s getting to the right place.
It actually comes in three different forms:
First, there’s vitamin K1, or phylloquinone. This is the form of vitamin K found in plant foods.
Vitamin K1 is quite stable to oxidation and most food processing and food preparation procedures. It is unstable to light and alkaline conditions.
Next, there’s Vitamin K2, also called menaquinone. This the form friendly bacteria in the intestines make.
The last form would be called vitamin K3. It is also called menadione. Menadione is the only formed isolated from Staphylococcus aureus and also chemically synthesized. It is a synthetic compound that can be converted into K2 in the gastrointestinal tract.
All vitamin K ends up in liver, where it’s used to make some of the substance that make blood clot.
Properties of vitamin K
