Question

The following question is a case-based question. Read the case carefully and answer the questions that follow: 

Certain organic compounds are required in small amounts in our diet but their deficiency causes specific diseases. These compounds are called vitamins. Most of the vitamins cannot be synthesized in our body but plants can synthesize almost all of them. So they are considered as essential food factors. However, the bacteria of the gut can produce some of the vitamins required by us. All the vitamins are generally available in our diet. The term ‘vitamin’ was coined from the words vital + amine, since the earlier identified compounds had an amino group. Vitamins are classified into two groups depending upon their solubility in water or fat, namely, fat-soluble vitamins and water-soluble vitamins.

Answer the following questions:

(a) What is the other name of vitamin B₆?   (1)

(b) Name the vitamin whose deficiency causes increased blood clotting time.  (1)

(c) Xerophthalmia is caused by the deficiency of which vitamin? Give two sources of this vitamin.  (2)

                                       OR

(c) Why can’t vitamin C be stored in our body? Name the disease caused by the deficiency of this vitamin.  (2)

Answer 1

(a) Another name of vitamin B₆ is pyridoxine.

(b) Vitamin K

(c) Deficiency of vitamin A causes xerophthalmia. The two sources of vitamin A are fish and carrots, dairy, and eggs.

                                           OR

(c) The fact that vitamin C is soluble in water means that it dissolves in water. Because it may be expelled from the body through urine, vitamin C cannot be kept because it cannot be preserved. A deficit in vitamin C is characterized by a number of symptoms, the most prominent of which are dry, brittle, and coiled hair that hangs in a spiral shape, bleeding around hair follicles, and bleeding gums.