Natural and Synthetic Vitamins. Can we manufacture natural vitamins

Dear Dr. JB Lim

1. Can the PharCo produce the synthetic levo vitamins instead of the dextro type.
2. Why the American FDA approved the sales of these harmful and misleading vitamins. All the while people are thinking they are buying the same vitamin products natural or synthetic.

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Thank you for your question on why drug manufacturers cannot make their vitamins exactly as those found naturally in foods.

I cannot give you the answer with certainty as I do not have a PhD degree in biological or pharmaceutical chemistry.

But I supposed it would almost be impossible for scientists to mimic God's marvellous creation of Nature.

If scientists could do that, then they would have been able to create life by synthesizing all the biological molecules exactly like those in a living body.

Most of the biological molecules including vitamins exist in the levo or left handed form as far as I read, and was also told, compared to the dextro or right handed orientation in natural ones. Do not ask me why.

Even if scientists are able to mimic God's handiwork, the vitamins are all going to be very, very, expensive which even millionaires would not be able to afford

The only exception I can think of as I type this sentence, is sugar where the body utilizes the D or dextro form more efficiently.

But the rest of the nutrients as far as I know, are mainly in their left handed orientation.

This is particular true with
L-amino acids which is found in large quantities in all biological systems.

This probably started from the beginning of life on Earth when natural amino acids were levo instead of in the dextro form and its synthesis continued naturally, being duplicated in all living things into their biological systems like molecular clones till today.

Almost all the amino acids from proteins are in the L (levo) form instead of in the dextro form

I believe it would be easier for the body to follow the same metabolic pathways for all biomolecules, whether or not they are amino acids, triglycerides, sugars or vitamins, instead of man-made D form for which I suppose is much, much easier and cheaper to manufacture.

But that does not mean the body cannot use them, except it may have to create a new road (new metabpolic pathways) for them to follow.

This means the conversion into another metabolic system may not be so efficient, and that large amounts would be needed for the conversion?

Let me put this in another way. It is like currency exchange where you need to pay large amounts of a certain currency just to get a small amount of another currency

A simple example is you need to pay more than RM 3 to get one Singapore dollar.

Now you can understand why it is far, far better to get your vitamins from food rather than from tablets because of this conversion rate.

Moreover it is far, far cheaper to eat food Nature provides for than for us to take tablets of artificial nutrients.

Remember, man eat food, not nutrients.

Now you can understand why I said in my last letter that you need only 10 mg of vitamin C from fruits instead of 100 - 200 mg from tablets to cure scurvy.

I can only explain all these examples in a lecture, not by using my small smart phone here which keeps auto correcting me.

It is more advantageous for the body to receive something that is more compatible to its own than something that is just a mirror image or as an antagonistic

The body has to create a synthetic pathway just allow the synthetic vitamin to use, and sometimes it cannot even do that.

I hope my explanation following your question makes things easier for you to understand


Lim jb