Calcium salts nervous system

D-Pantolactone (Figure 6.3.1) is an important intermediate in the production of d-pantothenic acid, also called vitamin B5. Deficiency of pantothenic acid can result in symptoms such as pathological changes of the skin and mucosa, disorders in the gastrointestinal tract and nervous system, organ changes, and hormonal disorders. Pantothenic acid is used mainly in feed for chicken and pigs and also as a vitamin supply in human nutrition. Its commercial form, the calcium salt, is produced worldwide on a multi-thousand ton scale. 

Hypervitaminosis D apparently cannot arise from excessive exposure to sunlight but only occurs following inge.s-tion of large quantities of synthetic vitamin D for months The amount necessary has been estimated at 50,000 units or more in a person with normal parathyroid function. The mechanism may involve formation of excessive amounts of the vitamin D metabolite 25-OHD. Toxicity involves derangements of calcium metabolism, resulting in hypercalcemia and metastatic calcification of soft tissue. Most problems result from the hypercalcemia, which typically causes muscular weakness, anorexia, nausea, vomiting, and depression of the central nervous system (which can result in coma and death). In addition, deposition of calcium salts in the kidneys (nephrocalcinosis) and the tubules (nephrolithiasis)... 

More than 90 percent of commercial phosphorus production is in the form of calcium salts of phosphoric acid, H3PO4, used as fertilizers. Other significant uses of phosphorus compounds are in the manufacture of matches (phosphorus sulfides), food products and beverages (purified phosphoric acid and its salts), detergents (sodium polyphosphates), plasticizers for polymers (esters of phosphoric acid), and pesticides (derivatives of phosphoric acid). Related to the phosphorus pesticides are nerve gases, poisonons com-potmds that rapidly attack the central nervous system, initially developed during World War II. see also Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) Fertilizer Pesticides. 

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