How can different vegetables and fruits have different vitamins and nutrients although they are growed in same soil?
In: Biology
What we think of as nutrients all have functions in the plant as well.
Like ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and citric acid both act as preservatives in fruit, stopping bacteria from eating the fruit until the seeds are ripe. Sugars make fruit more attractive to animals and microorganisms, so they increase once the fruit needs to be broken open to release the seeds.
All the vitamins we get from food also do important jobs in plant cells. The difference is that we can’t make them ourselves. So plants, unless they’ve specifically been bred to accumulate something (like beta-carotene in carrots), just make what they need for their needs and that differs from species to species and probably from individual to individual.
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