Biological Chemistry - Berezov, T. T., Korovkin, B. F. 1998

Vitamins
Vitamin-like Compounds
Inositol

Experiments on mice have demonstrated that a dietary deficiency of this Water-soluble factor results not only in growth arrest, but also in distinctive Hair loss and fatty Liver infiltration accompanied by Cholesterol accumulation. Supplementing the animals' diet with liver extracts eliminated these symptoms. The therapeutic substance was initially designated as the anti-alopecia factor and was later identified as inositol phosphoric ester; phytin, a salt of inositol phosphoric acid, also exhibits vitamin properties.

Inositol is a cyclic hexahydric alcohol of cyclohexane:

Class="center">

Inositol is found within phosphoglycerols (derivatives of phosphatidic acid) and serves as a component of phosphatidylinositol (see Chapter 11). The Biological Role of inositol is most likely related to phosphoglycerol METABOLISM and the generation of inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate, one of the most potent intracellular secondary messengers (see Chapter 11). Inositol exerts a pronounced lipotropic effect, inhibiting The Development of Fatty liver degeneration in animals maintained on a protein-free diet and in humans with malignant neoplasms. Although the necessity of inositol as an essential dietary factor for rats and mice, along with its specific lipotropic action, has been demonstrated quite convincingly, its vitamin properties for other animals and humans cannot be considered definitively established.

Inositol is widely distributed in nature. It is abundant in liver, meat, milk, whole-grain bread, vegetables, and fruits.