The following sections of this BookRags Literature Study Guide is offprint from Gale's For Students Series: Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on Commonly Studied Works: Introduction, Author Biography, Plot Summary, Characters, Themes, Style, Historical Context, Critical Overview, Criticism and Critical Essays, Media Adaptations, Topics for Further Study, Compare & Contrast, What Do I Read Next?, For Further Study, and Sources.
(c)1998-2002; (c)2002 by Gale. Gale is an imprint of The Gale Group, Inc., a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Gale and Design and Thomson Learning are trademarks used herein under license.
The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction: "Social Concerns", "Thematic Overview", "Techniques", "Literary Precedents", "Key Questions", "Related Titles", "Adaptations", "Related Web Sites". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Guide to Literature for Young Adults: "About the Author", "Overview", "Setting", "Literary Qualities", "Social Sensitivity", "Topics for Discussion", "Ideas for Reports and Papers". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
All other sections in this Literature Study Guide are owned and copyrighted by BookRags, Inc.
A member of the vitamin B family, pantothenic acid functions primarily as part of an enzyme system involved in fat and carbohydrate metabolism. First recognized as a growth factor for yeast in 1933, it was isolated in 1939 by Richard Kuhn in Heidelberg and synthesized a year later by Roger John Williams and coworkers in the United States. Although tests showed its vitamin nature by its ability to prevent certain metabolic failures in animals, the compound aroused little interest for almost a decade.
Then, in 1947, Fritz Lipmann, a German biochemist who immigrated to the United States in 1944 and did important work in carbohydrate metabolism, discovered a compound he called coenzyme A. This compound, Lipmann reported, played an important role as a catalyst for the transfer of two carbon groups in vital acetylation reactions in the body (one of these reactions, for instance, is the formation of acetylcholine, a substance essential to the transmission of nerve impulses). Lipmann then went on to show that pantothenic acid not only formed part of coenzyme A but was crucial to its functioning. The seemingly unimportant little vitamin, then, clearly played a more vital role in the metabolic process than was previously believed.
Today, we have also learned that pantothenic acid appears essential for the synthesis of steroids, including cholesterol, and the adrenal cortical hormones. Fortunately, pantothenic acid is widely distributed in plants and animals (its name, in fact, came from the Greek word "panthos" which means "everywhere") and deficiencies are extremely rare.