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Human vitamin pills and plant fertilizers can be a source of trace metals. Trace metals are sometimes referred to as trace elements, although the latter includes minerals and is a broader category. See also Dietary mineral. Trace elements are required by the body for specific functions.
Plants tend not to use vitamins, although minerals are required. [8] [17] Structure of the Mn 4 O 5 Ca core of the oxygen-evolving site in plants, illustrating one of many roles of the trace mineral, manganese. [18] Some seven trace elements are essential to plant growth, although often in trace quantities. [citation needed]
Selenium, which is an essential element for animals and prokaryotes and is a beneficial element for many plants, is the least-common of all the elements essential to life. [ 3 ] [ 63 ] Selenium acts as the catalytic center of several antioxidant enzymes, such as glutathione peroxidase , [ 11 ] and plays a wide variety of other biological roles .
A trace element is a chemical element of a minute quantity, a trace amount, especially used in referring to a micronutrient, [1] [2] but is also used to refer to minor elements in the composition of a rock, or other chemical substance. In nutrition, trace elements are classified into two groups: essential trace elements, and non-essential trace ...
Twenty chemical elements are known to be required to support human biochemical processes by serving structural and functional roles, and there is evidence for a few more. [1] [9] Oxygen, hydrogen, carbon and nitrogen are the most abundant elements in the body by weight and make up about 96% of the weight of a human body.
Vitamins and minerals are essential to the proper functioning and maintenance of the human body. [114] There are 20 trace elements and minerals that are essential in small quantities to body function and overall human health. [114] Iron deficiency is the most common inadequate nutrient worldwide, affecting approximately 2 billion people. [115]
The essential nutrient trace elements for humans, listed in order of Recommended Dietary Allowance (expressed as a mass), are potassium, chloride, sodium, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, iron, zinc, manganese, copper, iodine, chromium, molybdenum, and selenium. Additionally, cobalt is a component of Vitamin B 12 which is essential.
In humans, copper is essential to the proper functioning of organs and metabolic processes. Also, in humans, copper helps maintain the nervous system, immune system, brain development, and activates genes, as well as assisting in the production of connective tissues, blood vessels, and energy. [1]