Vitamin B3 Niacin

Vitamin B3 or niacin is an important vitamin of the B group. It is known as nicotinic acid to organic chemists. It was derived from yeast. Most of the classic symptoms of pellagra, diarrhoea, and mental derangement were relieved with the administration of niacin.

Although nicotinic acid is chemically related to nicotine found in tobacco, it has none of its physiological properties. It is, therefore, commonly called niacin to avoid confusion. Niacin is an odourless, white, crystalline substance, readily soluble in water. It is resistant to heat, oxidation, and alkalies. It is, in fact, one of the most stable vitamins.

Cooking causes little actual destruction of niacin, but a considerable amount may be lost in the cooking water and drippings from cooked meat if these are discarded. In a mixed diet, 15 to 25 per cent of niacin of the cooked foodstuff may be lost in this way. Sulphur drugs, alcohol, food-processing techniques, and sleeping pills tend to destroy this vitamin.

Niacin is absorbed from both the stomach and intestines and stored in all the tissues. It is excreted in the urine, mostly as its salts, and to a smaller extent, as free niacin.

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