Nutritional Vitamins Found in Strawberries

Strawberries are not just a delightful treat but a powerhouse of essential nutrients that contribute significantly to overall health. These vibrant red berries are particularly rich in vitamin C, a potent antioxidant known for its wide-ranging benefits. One of its primary roles is bolstering the immune system by enhancing the production of white blood cells, which help defend the body against infections. Vitamin C is also crucial for collagen synthesis, a protein that maintains skin elasticity, reduces signs of aging, and supports the healing of wounds. Additionally, this nutrient enhances the absorption of non-heme iron from plant-based foods, reducing the risk of iron-deficiency anemia, a condition that affects energy levels and overall well-being. Remarkably, a single cup of strawberries (about eight berries) provides over 140% of the daily recommended intake of vitamin C, surpassing even citrus fruits like oranges in this regard.

Beyond vitamin C, strawberries are a notable source of folate (vitamin B9), essential for DNA synthesis and cell repair. This nutrient is particularly vital during pregnancy, as it helps prevent neural tube defects in developing fetuses. Folate also plays a critical role in brain function and the production of red blood cells, supporting mental clarity and preventing conditions like anemia. Given the demands for cell growth and regeneration throughout life, folate is indispensable across all ages.

While strawberries are celebrated for their vitamin C and folate content, they also offer smaller amounts of vitamin A and vitamin K. Vitamin A supports good vision, healthy skin, and a strong immune system by promoting the function of mucosal barriers and immune cells. Vitamin K, meanwhile, plays an essential role in blood clotting and bone health, helping to prevent excessive bleeding and conditions like osteoporosis.

In addition to these vitamins, strawberries contain dietary fiber, which aids in digestion and supports heart health by lowering bad cholesterol levels. Their naturally low calorie count—around 50 calories per cup—combined with antioxidants like anthocyanins and ellagic acid, makes them an excellent choice for weight management and reducing inflammation. Including strawberries in your diet is a delicious way to enhance your nutrient intake and support long-term vitality.
Nutritional Vitamins Found in Strawberries

Discovery and history of niacin

Recognition that niacin is a vitamin in the early 20th century resulted from efforts to understand and treat a widespread human disease – pellagra.

Pellagra was probably first observed in 1735 in Asturias, autonomous community in Kingdom of Spain.

It was identified among the peasants by Don Gaspar Casal in 1735, soon after the maize was introduced into Europe. A loathsome skin disease, it was called “mal de la rosa” and often mistaken for leprosy.

Pellagra was already an epidemic in Europe in the 18th century, and in the first half of the 20th century it also started its spread in the United States of America, particularly among the poorest social classes.

In 1915, American epidemiologist and US Public Health Service officer Joseph Goldberger conducted a series of experiments on 11 healthy volunteer prisoners in a Mississippi jail and found that he could induce pellagra by altering their diets. He concluded that the disease was caused by the absence of some factor that was lacking in corn. He named it the P-P (for pellagra-preventative) factor.

In 1937, American biochemist Conrad Arnold Elvehjem and his colleagues successfully isolated the vitamin and demonstrated that pure nicotinic acid and nicotinic acid amide would reverse the pellagra and black tongue in dogs by feeding them the Goldberger diet.

He also isolated the P-P factor from active liver extracts, showing that this factor is actually nicotinic acid (subsequently named niacin for nicotinic acid vitamin).

The discovery of niacin as the antipellagra vitamin was announced by C. A. Elvehjem, R. J. Madden, F. M. Strong, and D. W. Woolley in 1937 (J. Am. Chem. Xoc. 59, 1767 (1937)),

During the following year a number of clinical trials were made which established beyond doubt the value of niacin in the treatment of pellagra, and that the acid or its amide should be regarded as the P-P (pellagrapreventive) factor.
Discovery and history of niacin

Main roles of folate in human body

Orange juice may be considered a good source of natural folate in respect to content and stability during storage. Folate is one of the B group vitamins, naturally found in food, that plays an important role in cell division and the synthesis of amino acids and nucleic acids like DNA.

On average 150 mL of orange juice provide about 32.3 ug of folate. Other good sources of folate include:
*Breakfast cereals with fortification of folic acid
*Wholegrain or brown bread, pasta or brown rice
*Fruit and veges: Spinach, peas, asparagus, broccoli, brussel sprouts,
*Tinned baked beans
*Chick peas

Roles of folate in human body:
*Helps normal psychological function
*Helps the immune system to work normally
*Has a role in the process of cell division
*Helps reduce tiredness and fatigue

Folates play a key role in one‐carbon metabolism, that is, key reactions in the synthesis of proteins with the amino acids methionine, histidine, serine, and glycine, but also DNA with purines and thymidilate or vitamin B5.

It is well established that folates are beneficial in the prevention of neural tube defects and cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases.
Main roles of folate in human body

Cranberries – rich of vitamin C

Cranberries belong to a group of evergreen dwarf shrubs or trailing vines in the genus Vaccinium subgenus Oxycoccus. Cranberries were found containing various types of bioactives, mostly polyphenols, including proanthocyanidins, anthocyanins, flavonols, and phenolic acids. Cranberries are among a few foods that contain A-type proanthocyanidins.

Cranberry juice is rich source of antioxidants, vitamin C and salicylic acid. Cranberries contain vitamin C as evidenced by the presence of citric acid. One cup of Cranberry juice contained a total 8983 antioxidant capacity. Vitamin C is also an important antioxidant. It is important to recall that the antioxidants β -carotene and vitamin E protect water soluble substances from oxidizing agents; vitamin C protects water soluble substances the same way.

Research shows that people who consume cranberries have lower levels of C-reactive protein, a blood marker of inflammation, which is a known trigger of premature aging, chronic illness, and cognitive decline.

Cranberry juice is becoming a popular beverage. The fresh juice is fully as potent as the fruit, but after extraction, bottling, and processing, little of the vitamin C is retained by the methods now in use. Vitamin C is the least stable of all vitamins and it can be easily degraded during processing and storage. The most harmful factors to vitamin C content are the presence of oxygen, prolonged heating in the air ambiance and exposure to light.

The initial content of vitamin C in wild and cultivated fresh cranberries was differing, which mainly depends on varieties’ individuality.

Whole-fruit cranberry sauce as usually prepared contains approximately 80 per cent of the original vitamin C content, but strained sauce retains less than 10 per cent.
Cranberries – rich of vitamin C

Lack of niacin can cause pellagra

Pellagra results from a niacin and/or tryptophan deficient diet which produces psychosis and dementia, among other symptoms. Niacin, known as vitamin B3, is a water-soluble, vitamin of the B complex group of vitamins.

The earliest description of pellagra was that of the Spanish physician Don Gaspar Casal in 1763.Casal recorded all the clinical characteristics and ascribed the disease to the unbalanced diets, based on maize, of poor peasants in the Asturia region of Spain. The next description of the disease came from Italy in 1771 when pellagra was given its name, meaning "rough skin".

Pellagra mostly found in parts of India, China, and Africa where corn or maize as a staple food. The characteristic manifestations appear as dermatitis, diarrhea and dementia ("the three Ds") and can lead to death (the fourth D).

Causes of pellagra can be divided into primary and secondary. Primary pellagra is due to dietary deficiency. High leucine content in corn/maize prevents conversion of tryptophan to niacin, leading to deficiency of niacin. Secondary pellagra is due to defective absorption or metabolism of niacin/tryptophan.

Early neurological symptoms associated with pellagra include anxiety, depression, and fatigue; later symptoms include apathy, headache, dizziness, irritability and tremors. In early cases the manifestations are psychoneurotic; later, lesions affect the nerves. As the disease advances, patients become confused, disoriented, and delirious, then comatose and stuporous, and finally die.

Mental aberrations may pass to dementia: about 4-10 % of chronic pellagra patients developmental symptoms.

In the western world, it is almost eradicated due to fortification of flour with niacin.

Lack of niacin can cause pellagra 

Drying process affects vitamin in food

The vitamin content of a food is, in general, reduced by drying. This is especially true for those vitamins (e.g. vitamin A and ascorbic acid) that are easily destroyed by heat in the presence of air, through oxidation.

The drying temperature has been shown to have no influence on vitamins B1, B2, B6 and niacin, whereas vitamin A losses increase with increasing drying temperatures. β-carotene which may be applied as the source of the vitamin A is shown to be far more stable than the straight vitamin.

Drying methods affect vitamin C content as well. It can be stated that the higher the drying temperature and air velocity, the greater the degradation of vitamin C durign drying.

However the application of a drying process with low temperatures for a short period of time can result in relatively high ascorbic acid retention, avoiding its sensitivity to heating processes. The sulfuring of fruit previous to drying also aids in reducing the amount of ascorbic acid destroyed during drying.
Drying process affects vitamin in food

Christiaan Eijkman and beriberi

During the time period of the Dutch beriberi problem in Indonesia, physicians were preoccupied with the concept that diseases were cause by pathological problem.

In 1886 Christiaan Eijkman and other physicians began the quest for identifying the beriberi microbe and developing procedures for eliminating the disease. As a former student of Robert Koch, he had been trying to isolate and infect chickens with ‘beriberi bacteria’.

Early discovery, which demonstrated the specificity of the dietary essentials, was Eijkman’s production of beriberi on chickens in 1897 by feeding them polished rice.

The polished cooked rice had resulted in beriberi symptoms of peripheral neuritis. This disease was prevented or cured by feeding either a diet of unpolished rice or a diet to which alcoholic extract of rice bran was added. Eijkman thought that a toxin in rice was being unmasked in the conversion of brown to white rice.

In 1901, Gerrit Grijns, Eijkman’s successor, observed that chicken fed on raw meat did not develop polyneuritis whereas those exclusively fed on meat that has been heated long enough at 120° C developed the disease.

After further work, his statement in 19o1 was perhaps the progenitor of the “vitamin era” in nutritional research: “There occur in various natural foods substances which cannot be absent without serious injury… they are easily disintegrated … and cannot be replaced by simple chemical compounds.”
Christiaan Eijkman and beriberi

Nikolai Lunin and the concept of vitamins

The concept of “vitamin” suggested in 1881 by Nikolai Lunin (1853-1937) and coined in 1911 by Casmir Funk (1884-1967), refers to a group of organic compounds that are in very small amounts, essential for the normal function of the human body, since most of them cannot be synthesized in the body tissue.

An early landmark leading to the recognition of vitamin as a dietary essential occurred in 1881, when Lunin demonstrated that mice could not survive on purified diets consisting of proteins, carbohydrates, fats, and inorganic salts but would developed normally when milk was added. Lunin concluded that ‘a natural food such as milk must therefore contain small quantities of unknown substances essential for life’.

Despite the pioneer work of James Lind and Nikolai Lunin, many vitamin deficiency states were still thought to be of infectious origin, even in the early 1900s.
Nikolai Lunin and the concept of vitamins

What type of vitamins and minerals are found in rye?

Rye is a cereal grain with a strong, unique flavor and visual characteristics similar to that of wheat, but with more length & slimness; the color of the cereal varies from yellow-brown to green to gray.

Rye is considered a good source o B-vitamins thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, panthotenic acid, pyridoxine, and folate and an excellent source of alpha-tocopherol, the vitamin E isomer with the highest biological activity.

These micronutrients are mostly remove during milling of flour, as the vitamins are stored mainly in the aleurone layer of bran, while vitamin E isomers are found in the germ.

Rye seeds contain numerous important minerals such as Ca, Mg, P, K, and Fe. A great feature of rye is its 4 to 1 ratio magnesium to calcium content.
What type of vitamins and minerals are found in rye?

What vitamins and minerals are found in citrus juice?

Fruit and vegetable juices are very good sources of the essential nutrients. Orange and grapefruit contains nutrients, micronutrients, vitamins and a mineral profile that is low or free of sodium while being high in potassium.

Most citrus cultivars are free of lipids, contain high levels of vitamins C and contain folate acid, thiamin, and to a lesser extent vitamin B6, niacin and riboflavin.

Vitamin C is relatively stable in citrus product during processing and storage. In addition to vitamin C or ascorbic acid, citrus juices also contain vitamin B complex and provitamin A.

Orange is rich in vitamin C and potassium and low in sodium. Grapefruit juice contains a lower concentration of folate, thiamin and niacin than orange juice.

The juice of citrus fruit contains about 0.4% ash. The ash content of orange juice was generally the highest in immature fruit and gradually decreased as fruit maturity progressed.
What vitamins and minerals are found in citrus juice?

Vitamin fortification of milk

Many milk are fortified with vitamins A and D. Vitamin D is found naturally in very few foods and was initially added to milk, a staple food, to reduce the incidence of rickets, a bone-softening condition in children that was at one time endemic in North America. Unfortified cow’s milk traditionally has been regarded as a poor source of vitamin D, supplying 5 to 35 IU/liter.

Before the fortification of milk was widely practice, many children grew up with severely bowed legs and other effects of vitamin D deficiency.

Another benefit of vitamin D supplementation is a lower rate of osteomalacia in the elderly, which is largely responsible for bone fractures. Studies showed that vitamin D might have other health benefits including improvement of the immune response.

The fortification of dried skim milk with vitamin A is viewed by the World Health Organization and the Food and Agricultural Organization was an important measure to combat vitamin A deficiency in developing countries, where 20, 000 to 100, 000 children yearly develop blindness from a lack of vitamin A in their diet.
Vitamin fortification of milk

Vitamin content in blueberries

Vitamin in blueberries include vitamin C, vitamin B1, vitamin B2, vitamin B3, vitamin B6 and vitamin E. Vitamin also can help heal wounds, fight infections and enhance absorption of iron from other foods.

Vitamin C and vitamin E in blueberries offer an oxidant properties, which help to fight aging by ridding human bodies of harmful chemicals that have damaging, long term effects on human features and internal organ systems.

Blueberries also contain natural compounds related to vitamin A called lutein that promote healthy night vision and prevent ‘macular degeneration’- age related eye disease that’s the leading cause of vision loss in the elderly.

Cooking will destroy some the vitamin C in fresh blueberries and lets water-soluble B vitamin leach out.
Blueberries with vitamin
Vitamin content in blueberries

Vitamins: Functions and applications in food processing

Modern food processing preserve food quality, controls food spoilage and disease-causing microorganisms, preserve desirable sensory qualities such as flavor, odor, texture, and appearance, preserve nutrients content, and in many case enhances the nutrient value as well.

Vitamins are organic compounds that are necessary in very small amounts for the maintenance of life. Most vitamins can be synthesize by the body and must be supplied by the diet. Vitamin functions in biochemical reactions within all living cells, and are necessary for metabolism.

Moreover, vitamins play an important role as functional additives in food processing. The chemical properties of certain vitamins provide significant functional benefits in processed foods.

The technical used for vitamins and their various application are as below.

• Antioxidants
• Colorants
• Inhibitions of can corrosion
• Protection of taste, flavor and clarity
• Prevention of black spot prevention
• Prevention of nitrosamine formation
• Flour dough improvement
• Maintenance of color in meat package in controlled atmosphere.

Vitamins: Functions and applications in food processing

Antimetabolites

Certain compounds similar in structure to the vitamin molecule (or to the portion of the molecule containing the active site) can replace the vitamin by attaching themselves to the enzyme. These substances are called ‘antimetabolites’ or ‘metabolic antagonists’. They block the normal action of the co-enzyme and in effect, result in cellular deficiency of the vitamin.

The antimetabolite is a chemical substance which is shaped like the substrate. In other words, it is a structural relative or analogue of the substrates. Probably for this reason it also is able to combine with the active center of the enzyme.

Certain other antimetabolites exhibit anti-vitamins activity because they are capable of blocking biosynthesis of the coenzyme molecule; such compounds may or may not resemble the vitamin in structure.

In either case, a condition similar to true vitamins deficiency is produced. Antimetabolites are useful in producing experimental vitamin deficiencies, especially those deficiency that developed slowly from dietary restriction alone.

Antimetabolites also useful adjuncts in delineating the biochemical pathways in which the vitamin is involved, and in relating metabolic disturbances to symptoms of deficiency.

The use of vitamin metabolites created new opportunities for inducing a studying many aspects of s wide range and variety of malformations and fortuitously led to an avenue of human studies.

A variety of antagonists of vitamins, hormones and cell metabolites had been synthesized after Donald Woods of Oxford University discovered in 1940 that sulfonamides exerted their antibacterial action by antagonizing the role of 4-aminobenzoic acid, a growth factor for  bacteria. Such antagonists were described as antimetabolites.
Antimetabolites

Vitamins content in sweet cherry

Cherries are categorized as ‘sweet’ or ‘sour’ according to their flavor. Sweet cherries are usually eaten fresh. They can be used to top ice cream, yogurt, or pancakes and waffles, or they can be tossed into a fruit salad.

Cherry production is limited to temperature regions that experience moderately cold winter temperatures as the cherry tree requires a dormancy period each year that begins with defoliation in the autumn.

Both sweet and sour cherries are good sources of vitamin C. According to National Cancer Institute in 2004; sweet cherry contains important amounts of carotenoids, mainly beta-carotene (38ug/100g) and lutein/zeaxanthin (85 ug/100 g).

Zeaxanthin is a constitutional isomer of lutein. Lutein is the dominant xanthophylls that are the primary human sources of carotenoids.

In sweet cherry, the main vitamins are vitamin C (7-50 mg/100g) followed by vitamin E (0.07 mg/100 g) and vitamin K (2 ug/100 g).
Vitamins content in sweet cherry

p-aminobenzoic acid (PABA)

p-Aminobenzoic acid is comprised of a benzene ring substituted with an amino group and a carboxyl group. This substance are not actually essential vitamin but may be considered ‘conditional’ B vitamin. Humans under special circumstances require
it.

p-aminobenzoic acid is found in significant amounts in liver, kidney, spinach, whole grains ,mushrooms, yeasts, eggs and molasses. It is an essential growth factor for many species of bacteria, which use it for the biosynthesis of folate.

p-aminobenzoic acid

p-aminobenzoic acid always functions as a part of folate molecule in the human system.  It is synthesized by intestinal bacteria.  In bacteria, enzymes are available that can synthesize folate from pteridine, p-aminobenzoic acid glutamate.

High doses of p-aminobenzoic acid may cause nausea, vomiting and possibly liver damage. p-aminobenzoic acid is used as a sunscreen to protect against ultraviolet rays. It has also been used to turn gray hair back to it natural color.
p-aminobenzoic acid (PABA)

What is choline?

Choline had been isolated by Strecker in 1862 and its structure had been determine by Bayer.

It is a colorless, bitter-tasting, water soluble white syrup that takes up water rapidly on exposure to air and readily forms more stable crystalline salts with acids such as choline chloride or choline bitartrate.

Choline is crucial for the normal function of all cells. It is needed for the structural integrity and signaling functions of cell membranes; it directly affects cholinergic neurotransmitter; it is a major source of methyl groups in the diet; and is required for lipid transport form liver and for normal muscle function.

All, natural fats contain some choline; therefore, the vitamin is widely distributed in foods and feedstuffs.

The factor occurs naturally mostly in the form of phosphatidylcholine which because it is good emulsifying agent, is used as an ingredient or additive in many processed foods and food supplement.

Choline content of foods is usually determined by a colorimetric method or by microbiological assay.
What is choline?

Vitamin in general

For a substance to be added to the exalted list of vitamins, it must be recognized as an essential player in at least one necessary chemical reaction or process in the body.

Also, a vitamin is a substance that is made in the body either not all or in sufficient quantities to meet human needs.

The vitamins are essential for growth and health. An absence or deficiency of vitamin creates specific disorders.

Several vitamins function as enzyme cofactors (vitamin A, K and C, thiamin, niacin, riboflavin, vitamin B6, biotin, pantothenic acid, folate and vitamin B12) and not all enzyme cofactors are vitamins.

Some vitamins functions as biological antioxidants (vitamin E, and C) and several function as cofactors in metabolic oxidation-reduction reactions (vitamin E, K and C, niacin, riboflavin and pantothenic acid).

There are nine water-soluble and four fat soluble vitamins. Water soluble vitamins generally have limited storage ability in the body, with the exception of vitamin B12.

On the other hand, fat soluble vitamins are very dependent upon the processes of normal lipid digestion and absorption, such as the presence of bile and the construction of chylomicrons in the cells lining human small intestine. The four fat-soluble vitamins are:
*Vitamin A (retinol)
*Vitamin D (cholecalciferol)
*Vitamin E (tocopherol)
*Vitamin K (menadione)
Vitamin in general

Fish source of vitamin

Fish and fish products are commonly regarded as the most important natural food sources of vitamin D. Vitamin D contents differ greatly between species. It also varies with season as to be expected but also varies with environmental conditions and diet.

Various cooking method such as frying in oil can reduce vitamin D content by as much as half.

In general, the higher fat content of the fish meat, the higher is the vitamin D content. Oily fish such as mackerel and herring contain a higher level of vitamin D than learner fish like flounder and sea trout.

Oils extracted from the livers of shark, cod and halibut are very rich in vitamin A. These fatty acid fish obtain vitamin A by ingesting plankton living near the surface of the sea, and get exposed to sunlight.

Vitamin E functions as a natural antioxidant to prevent lipids from becoming rancid. Fish flesh is only a low to modest source of vitamin E.

Relatively few values for the vitamin K content of fish are available.

Vitamin B complex, especially niacin is present in good amount. Two other water soluble vitamins, folic acid and vitamin C are found in very small amounts in the edible portions of fish and shellfish.

Though a good amount of vitamin C is present in raw fish, it is destroyed in cooking. Most fish foods begin to lose some their potency in processing and continue to lose it.
Fish source of vitamin

Vitamin in guava

Fresh guavas are rich in vitamins A, B and C. Guava other than being a naturally excellent source of vitamin C is also a good a good laxative.

There is no doubt that the vitamin C content of fresh guava is excellent, with over 200 mg per 100 kg, approximately four times higher that of oranges.

Because of its high vitamin C content it is also good for bleeding gums and joint pains. It also gives the skin a healthy glow. It increases the body’s resistance to disease.

Cooking will destroy some water soluble, heat sensitive vitamin C. To keep minimum loss it is suggested by cooking the guava as quickly as possible in as little water as possible.

White flesh guava is reported to b e a better spruce of vitamin C than the pink flesh guava and is also rich in phenolics and beta-carotene.

Guava also provide a fair amount of vitamin A (625 IU), nearly all in the form of lutein and zeaxanthin (5000 mcg), vital for protection from ultraviolet radiation especially in the eyes.
Vitamin in guava