Vitamins

Vitamins are one of the six essential nutrients needed by the human body (vitamins, proteins, fats, minerals, water and carbohydrates) for normal functioning. These are micronutrients that play an important role in the growth, metabolism, and development of the human body. Most vitamins cannot be synthesized in the body or not in sufficient quantities and must be obtained through diet and other means. Although the daily requirement of the human body for vitamins is very small, once deficient, it can cause a range of symptoms associated with "vitamin deficiency". Vitamin deficiency can cause a number of diseases such as rickets (vitamin D deficiency), scurvy (vitamin C deficiency), angular cheilitis (vitamin B deficiency), and xerophthalmia (vitamin A deficiency). Different vitamins play a variety of roles in the body. It is difficult to monitor human body vitamin levels or identify a potential vitamin deficiency. The isotope labeled vitamins play an important role in the detection of vitamin content in the human body. Isotope-labeled compounds are used as internal standards to make the quantification more accurate and sensitive in clinical mass spectrometry.