First vitamin found in 55 years?
japanese researchers have unravelled the workings of the biochemical compound, pyrroloquinoline quinone (pqq), thus qualifying it to be the first vitamin to be discovered in the last 55 years. The last vitamin discovered was cyanocobalamin (also known as b12).
pqq was isolated from a bacterium in 1979 by researchers from the Texas University, usa. But scientists did not know it was connected with which enzyme, preventing pqq from being considered as a vitamin.
Vitamins are organic substances essential for good health and growth. They must be ingested through food or vitamin pills because human body is unable to make them. The exception is vitamin d, which our bodies produce when exposed to sunlight.
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