Human Biochemistry Volume 1 - Murray R. 1993

Bioenergetics and Carbohydrate and Lipid Metabolism
Biological Oxidation
Introduction

In chemistry, oxidation is defined as the removal of electrons and reduction as The addition of electrons; this can be illustrated by The oxidation of a ferrous ion to a ferric ion:

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It follows that oxidation is always accompanied by the reduction of an electron acceptor. This principle of oxidation-reduction processes is equally applicable to biochemical systems and characterizes The Nature of Biological Oxidation. Below are Examples demonstrating that many biological oxidation processes occur without the participation of molecular oxygen, such as dehydrogenase reactions.



Last update: 06/08/2026

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