ABSTRACT
Vitamins are physiologically active substances and a true assessment of the nutritional value of a food commodity or diet with respect to a particular vitamin can only be obtained by determining the vitamin’s biological activity. The only direct means of determining biological activity is a bioassay based on a biological function. Such assays were the means by which the vitamins were originally discovered and they are still in use today to measure the biopotency of novel vitamin analogs that may have potential therapeutic benefit. A discussion of bioassay methodology is beyond the scope of this book, since such assays are in the province of specialized laboratories.
