Pyridoxine, vitamin B6, is a water-soluble vitamin that was first isolated in 1930s. It is found naturally in many foods. The term vitamin B6 refers to six common forms. 

Vitamin B7, or biotin, has many important functions in the body. Biotin is an essential component of many enzymes that break down substances in the body, including fats, carbohydrates and amino acids.

Folate, a water-soluble vitamin, is the natural form of vitamin B9. Folate is also a generic term for a family of compounds.

Vitamin B12 is essential for good health, primarily due to its role in producing red blood cells, and as, together with vitamin B9, it assists the synthesis and preservation of the DNA and RNA.

Vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid, is an essential water-soluble dietary nutrient present in all primates. Unlike most mammals and other animals, humans do not have the ability to make vitamin C and must therefore obtain it from their diet.

Vitamin D is a very interesting, unique and important fat soluble vitamin. It is important because of the role that it plays especially in having healthy strong bones and teeth. It does so by helping the body absorb calcium, one of the main building blocks of bone.

Vitamin E is a group of related compounds primarily divided into two forms, tocopherol and tocotrienol. In each group there are alpha, beta, gamma and delta forms, giving a total of eight molecules.

Vitamin K is a group of fat-soluble compounds. It was originally identified for its role in blood clot formation; indeed, the K comes from the German name for the vitamin, Koagulationvitamin, referring to its importance in blood coagulation processes.

Vitamins are organic compounds (micronutrients) required by humans in tiny amounts from their diet. They are essential for life because they play a key role for many major biological reactions to take place in our bodies. They cannot be synthesised by humans. Professor Oya Alpar introduces the series in a video. You can then read about the various vitamins, their functions, their sources in foods and questions of deficiency and toxicity.