Author: Glossary
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Unsaturation
Introduction of double bonds.
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Under five
A shorthand term for children under 5 years of age; a period of rapid growth and relatively high nutritional requirements. Mortality in children at this age is a commonly used public health indicator. Clinics targeted at this age group are called under-five clinics. They traditionally combine nutrition and growth monitoring, immunisation, and simple curative treatment.…
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Umami
Name given to the special taste of monosodium glutamate, protein, certain amino acids, and the ribonucleotides (inosinate and guanylate). The Japanese name for a savoury flavour, now considered one of the five basic senses of taste.
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Trypsinogen
The inactive precursor of trypsin, secreted in the pancreatic juice. An enzyme secreted by the pancreas into the duodenum. Precursor of trypsin; trypsin is available after trypsinogen is acted on by enterokinase. The proenzyme or inactive form of trypsin that is released by the pancreas and converted to trypsin in the intestine. The substance that…
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Trolox
Trade name for a water-soluble vitamin E analogue.
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Trimester
The 40 weeks of pregnancy are divided conventionally into three trimesters 0-13 weeks, 14-26 weeks and 27 weeks until delivery. The three-month section of a pregnancy. A period of 3 months, applied to the pregnancy period. One of the three 3-month periods of a pregnancy. A period of three months. The nine months of pregnancy…
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Tri-iodothyronine
One of the thyroid hormones.
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Trehalose
Mushroom sugar, also called mycose, a disaccharide of glucose. A disaccharide (simple sugar) that is naturally synthesized (i.e., “manufactured”) by many plants and animals in response to the stresses of freezing, heating, or drying. That is because trehalose protects certain proteins (needed for life) and prevents loss of crucial volatile (i.e., easily evaporated) compounds from…
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Transketolase
Enzyme which inter-converts certain sugar phosphates, and which requires thiamin diphosphate (TPP) as its essential cofactor. Assay of this enzyme in red cell extracts is commonly used as a biochemical index of thiamin status, i.e. by measuring the ratio of the enzyme activity both with and without added TPP. An enzyme that uses thiamin pyrophosphate…
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Transferrin receptor
A tissue protein, also found in blood serum, which has a specific recognition-affinity for the iron-transporting protein, transferrin. It increases in concentration in conditions of chronic iron deficiency, and is therefore used as an iron status indicator. Unlike most other iron status indices, it is not confounded by the presence of an acute phase reaction…