Vitamins, Food, and Animal Feed Additives

Vitamins are organic compounds required as vital nutrients in small amounts by a given organism. Vitamins cannot be synthesized in sufficient quantities by the body and have to be provided with the diet to avoid characteristic diseases (e.g., scurvy in the case of human shortage of vitamin C). The three most important vitamins (by their industrial production capacities) are vitamin C, vitamin B3 (nicotinic acid amide) and vitamin E (tocopherol). These three vitamins represent, from their stmcture and synthesis, typical fine chemicals. However, they are produced on a multi-10000 ton-scale per year. To give an example that also fulfils the capacity criterion of fine chemicals. Table 5.3.19, shows vitamin B2 (riboflavin). The latter is produced both by chemical synthesis and fermentation on the order of 10 000 tons yr . Riboflavin is required for a wide variety of cellular processes and is used for therapeutic purposes and as food additive. 

The most relevant food additives, like glutaminic add (flavor enhancer) or L-asparaginic add (Aspertame , synthetic sweetener), are synthesized in much larger quantities than 10 000 tons yr . The same is true for the most relevant animal feed additives, such as D,L-methionine and L-lysine, which are even produced on the multi-100 000 ton-scale in continuous plants in a quite similar manner to bulk chemicals. 

The term pharmaceutical is used for chemicals that are produced for medical purposes. A pharmaceutical is typically composed of one or more active ingredients and many additional components (binder, stabilizers etc). The latter are present to provide a certain form of donation, for example, to integrate the active ingredient into a tablet, a powder, an ointment, or a solution. The active ingredients are produced using chemical synthesis, biological methods (such as fermentation or biocatalysis), or sequences of both. In addition, several active ingredients are obtained directly from plant extraction (e.g., morphine) or from chemical transformations of plant extracts (e.g., codeine). 

Active ingredients in pharmaceuticals typically contain chiral atoms and their different enantiomers often show very different physiological effects. Therefore, the synthesis of many drugs requires asymmetric catalysis, with more and more biological methods and biocatalytic processes becoming used in the industry. 

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