Niacin

Niacin is a water soluble B vitamin important for DNA repair and energy metabolism.

Niacin is the name for two similar nicotinic acid and nicotinamide. In 1867, nicotinic acid was produced from nicotine in tobacco. In the early 1940s, with its role as a vitamin established, it was renamed “niacin” so people wouldn’t confuse it with nicotine.

Niacin is part of coenzyme that participates in the production and breakdown of carbohydrates, fatty acids, and amino acids. It involved in at least 200 metabolic pathways.

It is also a compound that dilates blood vessel. Deficiency on niacin causes pellagra a (disease that causes diarrhea, dermatitis, nervous disorders, and sometimes death).

Pellagra is characteristically associated with maize based diets.

The disease pellagra has been known since the introduction of corn to Europe in the 1770s. The connection between pellagra and niacin was confirm in 1937 by an American scientist who reaching for the cause of pellagra.

In industrialized country, particularly among alcoholics, niacin deficiency may present with only encephalopathy.

Niacin comes form the diet, but the body can also manufacture it from the amino acid tryptophan, with riboflavin helping out in the process.

Adults require 13-20 mg niacin. In pregnancy, lactation and active muscular work, niacin requirement is further increased by 3-4 mg. Children require 5-16 mg niacin.

Most niacin in the American diet comes from meat, poultry, fish, nuts and peanuts an enriched and while grain products.

In grains, niacin is present ion covalently bound complexes with small peptides and carbohydrates, collectively referred to as niacin.
Niacin