24 Facts About Vitamin B12

Vitamin B12, known as cobalamin, is a water-soluble vitamin involved in metabolism.

Vitamin B12 is the most chemically complex of all vitamins, and for humans, the only vitamin that must be sourced from animal-derived foods or from supplements.

Foods containing vitamin B12 include meat, clams, liver, fish, poultry, eggs, and dairy products.

Vitamin B12 was discovered as a result of pernicious anemia, an autoimmune disorder in which the blood has a lower than normal number of red blood cells, due to a deficiency in vitamin B12.

Vitamin B12 is a coordination complex of cobalt, which occupies the center of a corrin ligand and is further bound to a benzimidazole ligand and adenosyl group.

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Pseudovitamin B12 is the majority corrinoid in spirulina, an algal health food sometimes erroneously claimed as having this vitamin activity.

Vitamin B12 deficiency is most commonly caused by malabsorption, but can result from low intake, immune gastritis, low presence of binding proteins, or use of certain medications.

Children diagnosed with low serum Vitamin B12 can be treated with intramuscular injections, then transitioned to an oral dietary supplement.

Severe vitamin B12 deficiency is corrected with frequent intramuscular injections of large doses of the vitamin, followed by maintenance doses of injections or oral dosing at longer intervals.

Vitamin B12 supplements are available as single or multivitamin tablets.

Vitamin B12 is produced in nature by certain bacteria, and archaea.

Animal-derived food sources with a high concentration of vitamin B12 include liver and other organ meats from lamb, veal, beef, and turkey; shellfish and crab meat.

Natural plant and algae sources of vitamin B12 include fermented plant foods such as tempeh and seaweed-derived foods such as nori and laver.

Vitamin B12 is included in multivitamin pills; in some countries grain-based foods such as bread and pasta are fortified with B12.

Deficiency does not develop if dietary intake of vitamin B12 is adequate or prophylactic B12 supplementation is given.

Vitamin B12 is the most chemically complex of all the vitamins.

The structure of Vitamin B12 is based on a corrin ring, which is similar to the porphyrin ring found in heme.

Protein-bound vitamin B12 must be released from the proteins by the action of digestive proteases in both the stomach and small intestine.

The next binding protein for Vitamin B12 is intrinsic factor, a protein synthesized by gastric parietal cells that is secreted in response to histamine, gastrin and pentagastrin, as well as the presence of food.

Absorption of food vitamin B12 thus requires an intact and functioning stomach, exocrine pancreas, intrinsic factor, and small bowel.

Vitamin B12 is derived from a tetrapyrrolic structural framework created by the enzymes deaminase and cosynthetase which transform aminolevulinic acid via porphobilinogen and hydroxymethylbilane to uroporphyrinogen III.

Industrial production of Vitamin B12 is achieved through fermentation of selected microorganisms.

Complete laboratory synthesis of Vitamin B12 was achieved by Robert Burns Woodward and Albert Eschenmoser in 1972.

Industrial production of vitamin B12 is achieved through fermentation of selected microorganisms.