WHY are vitamins A, C, E named with letters and B1, B6, B12 with numbers?



Cause the B group erroneously included different vitamins.


At the beginning of the 20th century, vitamins were called by their physiological action. The B vitamins had quite similar effects, and they were generally found in the same foods, so at first their names were all "vitamin B".

Later it turned out that it was a whole group of substances with varying chemical natures and they weren't interchangeable. As they were isolated, they began to be given the indices B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B9, and B12.

Nowadays, though, only the designations B6 and B12 are usually found in the medical literature, the other B vitamins are commonly referred to by their chemical names: B1 for thiamine, B2 for riboflavin, etc.




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