This review article gives a survey of the generally accepted biosynthetic pathways that lead to water-soluble vitamins in microorganisms, plants and some animals. The biosynthetic pathways leading to the B-group vitamins (thiamin, riboflavin, nicotinic acid and nicotinamide, pantothenic acid, vitamin B₆) are described in detail using the reaction schemes, sequences, and mechanisms with the enzymes involved and detailed explanations based on chemical principles and mechanisms. Keywords:

This review article gives a survey of the generally accepted biosynthetic pathways that lead to water-soluble vitamins in microorganisms, plants and some animals. The biosynthetic pathways leading to the B-group vitamins (thiamin, riboflavin, nicotinic acid and nicotinamide, pantothenic acid, vitamin B6) are described in detail using the reaction schemes, sequences, and mechanisms with the enzymes involved and detailed explanations based on chemical principles and mechanisms. Keywords:

The separation and determination of the ten water-soluble vitamins by using capillary electrophoresis in the micellar electrokinetic chromatography in a single run are proposed. The method uses low toxicity and cost solvent (ethanol) as modifier of background electrolyte (BGE) attending to the Green Chemistry principles. The electrophoretic method uses 10.0 % (v/v) ethanol, 2.0 % (w/v) SDS, 0.02 mol L⁻¹borate at pH 8.70 as BGE. The standard and real sample solutions were injected in the eletrophoretic system by hydrodynamic injection under pressure of 0.80 psi for 8 s, and the separation was carried out in a fused silica capillary under a potential of 28 kV at 25 °C; the analytical signals were monitored at 214 nm. The analytical method is precise (r.s.d. < 6 %), accurate (better than 9 %), selective, sensitive, robust, simple, and presents high analytical frequency as ten water-soluble vitamins were separated in only 18 min, with migration times of 5.75 ± 0.02, 6.81 ± 0.02, 8.13 ± 0.04, 8.80 ± 0.07, 8.98 ± 0.06, 11.10 ± 0.08, 11.34 ± 0.05, 13.85 ± 0.15, 14.82 ± 0.04, and 17.85 ± 0.30 min. Detection and quantification limits of 0.34, 0.32, 0.27, 0.20, 2.50, 4.98, 4.92, 0.30, 0.86 and 0.28 mg L⁻¹and 1.02, 0.97, 0.83, 0.62, 7.56, 15.09, 14.91, 0.90, 2.59 and 0.83 mg L⁻¹, for vitamins PP (nicotinamide), B₁₂(cyanocobalamin), B₂(riboflavin), B₆(pyridoxine), B₈(biotin), C (ascorbic acid), B₅(pantothenic acid), B₃(nicotinic acid), B₁(thiamine), and B₉(folic acid), respectively. Excellent recoveries (intra and inter-day) were obtained and, when the method was applied to food supplement analyses the results were in agreement with the conventional HPLC methods.

The use of L-cysteine modified silver nanoparticles (Cys-capped AgNPs) as a colorimetric probe for determination of vitamin B1 (thiamine) is described in the present work. This method is based on the measurement of red shift of localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) band of Cys-capped AgNPs in the region of 200–800 nm. The color of Cys-capped AgNPs was changed from yellow to colorless by the addition of vitamin B1. The mechanism for detection of vitamin B1 is based on the electrostatic interaction between positively charged vitamin B1, which causes the red shift of LSPR band from 390 nm to 580 nm. The interaction between Cys-capped AgNPs and vitamin B1 was theoretically explored by density function theory (DFT) using LANL2DZ basis sets with help of Gaussian 09 (C.01) program. The morphology, size distribution and optical properties of Cys-capped AgNPs were characterized by transmission electron microscope (TEM), UV-Visible spectrophotometry, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and dynamic light scattering (DLS) techniques. The method is linear in the range of 25–500 μg mL⁻¹ with correlation coefficient (R²) 0.992 and limit of detection of 7.0 μg mL⁻¹. The advantages of using Cys-capped AgNPs as a chemical sensor in colorimetry assay are being simple, low cost and selective for detection of vitamin B1 from food (peas, grapes and tomato) and environmental (river, sewage and pond) water samples.

The suitability of a number of 'off-the-shelf' food items for use as secondary reference materials for incorporation into routine work batches to enhance quality assurance has been evaluated over a 5 month period. The commodities were canned ham (tested for cholesterol and fatty acids), wheat germ (tested for fatty acids, thiamine, riboflavin and niacin), two fish oils (tested for fatty acids) and powdered orange drink vitamin C supplement (tested for ascorbic acid). Foods were purchased locally and analysed using recognized methods. Seven replicate analyses were performed initially on each food to establish homogeneity, with subsequent analyses in triplicate. Overall mean results (+/-2 s.d.) for the 5 month study were as follows: cholesterol in canned ham, 65 +/- 7.2 mg/100 g; thiamine in wheatgerm, 1.97 +/- 0.26 mg/100 g; riboflavin in wheatgerm, 0.27 +/- 0.17 mg/100 g; niacin in wheatgerm, 7.1 +/- 0.9 mg/100 g; ascorbic acid in vitamin C supplement, 718 +/- 70 mg/100 g; C18:0, C18:1 and C18:2 in wheatgerm, 0.72 +/- 0.11, 15.2 +/- 0.5 and 57.7 +/- 1.4% total fatty acids respectively; C18:0, C18:1 and C18:3 in canned ham, 12.5 +/- 0.6, 44.7 +/- 1.4 and 0.57 +/- 0.12% total fatty acids respectively; C18:0, C20:5 and C22:6 in cod liver oil, 2.4 +/- 0.1, 12.6 +/- 1.2, and 5.6 +/- 0.8% total fatty acids respectively; C18:0, C20:5 and C22:6 in omega 3 fish oil, 3.7 +/- 0.2, 19.2 +/- 0.5, and 12.8 +/- 1.4% total fatty acids, respectively. Statistical data were obtained from the multiple analyses, and based on the data generated, the foods tested were shown to have satisfactory homogeneity and stability for use as secondary reference materials over an extended period.

In this work, an efficient in situ solvent formation microextraction (ISFME) was combined with stopped-flow injection spectrofluorimetry (SFIS) for the determination of copper. In the proposed approach, thiamine was oxidized with copper(II) to form hydrophobic and highly fluorescent thiochrome (TC), which was subsequently extracted into ionic liquid as an extractant phase. A small amount of an ion-pairing agent (NaPF₆) was added to the sample solution containing a water-miscible ionic liquid ([Hmim][BF₄]) to obtain a hydrophobic ionic liquid ([Hmim][PF₆]), which acted as the extraction phase. After centrifuging, phase separation was performed and the enriched analyte was determined by SFIS. ISFME is an efficient method for separation and preconcentration of metal ions from aqueous solutions with a high ionic strength. Variables affecting the analytical performance were studied and optimized. Under optimum experimental conditions, the proposed method provided a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.024μgL⁻¹ and a relative standard deviation (RSD) of 2.1%. The accuracy of the combined methodology was evaluated by recovery experiments and by analyzing certified reference material (GBW 07605 Tea). Finally, the proposed method was successfully applied to copper determination in water and food samples.