The deficiency of Vitamin C causes

Vitamins and Nucleic Acids

Vitamins are organic compounds required in the diet in small amounts to perform specific biological functions for normal maintenance of optimum growth and health of the organism. Vitamins are designated by alphabets A, B, C, D, etc. Some of them are further named as sub-groups e.g. B1 , B2 , B6 , B12 , etc. Excess of vitamins is also harmful and vitamin pills should not be taken without the advice of doctor. Vitamins are classified into two groups depending upon their solubility in water or fat. Vitamins A, D, E and K are fat and oils soluble. They are stored in liver and adipose tissues. Vitamins B and C groups are soluble in water. Water soluble vitamins must be supplied regularly in diet because they are readily excreted in urine and can not be stored (except vitamin B₁₂) in our body. Deficiency of vitamins causes various diseases.

Nucleic acids ( DNA and RNA) are basis of heredity . They are made of four bases, adenine, guanine, cytosine and thymine which combine with sugar molecule beta-D-2-deoxyribose and phosphate group. Base , sugar and phosphate group form nucleotide unit which is building block of DNA molecule. Two nucleic acid chains are wound about each other and held together by hydrogen bonds between pairs of bases . These two strands are complementary to each other because the hydrogen bonds are formed between specific pairs of bases. Adenine forms hydrogen bonds with thymine whereas cytosine forms hydrogen bonds with guanine.

Proteins are the most abundant biomolecules of the living system. Amino acids contain amino group and carboxyl functional group. Depending upon the relative position of amino group with respect to carboxyl group, the amino acids can be classified into alpha, beta and so on. Only alpha amino acids are obtained on hydrolysis of protein. The side chain of amino acid is variable which are non-polar, polar and basic in nature.