Vitamin C

Vitamin C, also known as L-ascorbic acid, is an essential nutrient for higher primates and a few other organisms. Ascorbic acid is metabolically produced in most organisms, but humans are the most notable exception. The most widely known is that a lack of vitamin C can cause scurvy. The pharmacophore of vitamin C is the ascorbic acid ion. In living organisms, vitamin C is an antioxidant because it protects the body from the threat of oxidants, and vitamin C is also a coenzyme.