Talk:Vitamer

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Article creation[edit]

I created this article because the terms we know as "vitamins" (like vitamin A) are mere "generic descriptors" of whole families of biochemical compounds. These compounds are known as vitamers, a term universally used by scientists who work with nutrient biochemistry and assay. I've given both dictionary and scientific references, and anybody who'd like more is welcome to go to Google Scholar or pubmed and simply type in "vitamer" for a list of peer-reviewed scientific papers which use the word in the title or body, as a technical term. More than 2000 papers use the term, as a pubmed search on it as a text word will show ([1]; type in "vitamer"). A list of such papers is far too long an exhaustive to give here, nor appropriate. The term predates 1944 and I don't know who first proposed it, but it is now used universally. I'll add the original neologism etymology reference, when I locate it. Meanwhile, please do not delete this article without discussing it here, or with me on my TALK page. Better yet, do the pubmed search suggested above if you're not familiar with the literature, and have a look. S B H arris 22:13, 4 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Isomers or complex?[edit]

It is not clear in the article whether vitamers must, by definition, have similar molecular structures (as the suffix -mer would imply) such as the 5 Vitamin-D molecules, or whether vitamer is just another word for complex, as in B-complex which consists of dozens of very different molecules that happen to be found together in brewers yeast. Greensburger (talk) 17:24, 7 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

A "complex" is not a very specific word, as it can refer to a group of water solubles (the B complex) or a group of vitamers (the B-12 complex). Better words the vitamin "generic descriptor" name (like "vitamin A), and "vitamer" which is the name of the specific molecule which has the generic descriptor function (like alpha carotene). S B H arris 17:36, 22 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Provitamin[edit]

All "provitamins" are vitamins by definition (cyanocobalamin, beta-carotene, niacin) because they have vitamin acticity. Thus the term "provitamin" is obsolete and only encourages a much narrower definition of "vitamin" (only the molecule active in the body) which is not used in practice. I've suggested that Provitamin be merged here. S B H arris 19:09, 29 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I went ahead and did the merge. There's a table of vitamers which is better than [[existed in provitamin in the vitamin article. I'll see if I can remove some columns to give room for expansion to show vitamers-only. S B H arris 17:33, 22 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Subscript numbers for vitamin A[edit]

Can there be a discussion with references here or at vitamin A? On the topic of A₁ and so on? I am not convinced that the literature cited so far justifies subscripting. I will add, as there has been unwarrented criticism of editors by 149 as not sufficiently steeped in science, that my credentials include a doctorate in nutritional biochemistry from MIT, doctoral thesis on vitamin A. David notMD (talk) 20:31, 9 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]