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Concept
Provitamin
Summary
A provitamin is a substance that may be converted within the body to a vitamin. The term previtamin is a synonym.
The term "provitamin" is used when it is desirable to label a substance with little or no vitamin activity, but which can be converted to an active form by normal metabolic processes.
Some provitamins are:
"Provitamin A" is a name for β-carotene, which has only about 1/6 the biological activity of retinol (vitamin A); the body uses an enzyme to convert β-carotene to retinol. In other contexts, both β-carotene and retinol are simply considered to be different forms (vitamers) of vitamin A.
"Provitamin B5" is a name for panthenol, which may be converted in the body to vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid).
Menadione is a synthetic provitamin of vitamin K.
Provitamin D2 is ergosterol, and provitamin D3 is 7-dehydrocholesterol. They are converted by UV light into vitamin D. The human body produces provitamin D3 naturally; deficiency is usually caused by a lack of sun exposure, not a lack of the provitamin.
Official source
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