Vitamin A is a group of unsaturated nutritional organic compounds, that includes retinol, retinal, retinoic acid, and several provitamin A carotenoids, among which beta-carotene is the most important. Vitamin A has multiple functions: it is important for growth and development, for the maintenance of the immune system and good vision.

Vitamin A is needed by the retina of the eye in the form of retinal, which combines with protein opsin to form rhodopsin, the light-absorbing molecule, that is necessary for both low-light (scotopic vision) and color vision. Vitamin A also functions in a very different role as an irreversibly oxidized form of retinol known as retinoic acid, which is an important hormone-like growth factor for epithelial and other cells. 

Synonym: Vitamin A, retinyl acetate, vitamin a acetate all-(E)-3,7-dimethyl-9-2,6,6-trimethyl-1-cyclohex-1-enyl)2,4,6,8-nona tetraene-1-yl Acetate.