Riboflavin or Vitamin B2

Riboflavin is also known as vitamin B2. The primary form of the vitamin is as an integral component of the coenzymes flavin mononucleotide (FMN) and flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD). Through these two flavoco-enzymes, riboflavin functions as a catalyst for redox reactions in numerous metabolic pathways and in energy production.

Riboflavin was first documented in 1879 by Alexander Wynter Blyth as a yellow pigment found in milk and it was called lactochrome or vitamin G. This water-soluble B factor from milk was actually a combination of both thiamine (which is heat labile) and riboflavin (which is heat stable).

Food sources of riboflavin including: legumes (chick peas, lentils, red and black gram and soybean), meat (beef, mutton, chicken, and duck), fish and eggs. Fruits and vegetables are poor sources of riboflavin.

Riboflavin is important for the growth, development, and function of the cells in human body. It also helps turn the food into the energy in the body. Humans require dietary riboflavin for DNA repair, energy production, fatty acid and amino acid synthesis, folic acid activation, and production of glutathione which is a free radical scavenger.

Riboflavin deficiency results in the condition of hypo- or ariboflavinosis, with sore throat; hyperaemia; oedema of the pharyngeal and oral mucous membranes; cheilosis; angular stomatitis; glossitis; seborrheic dermatitis; and normochromic, normocytic bone marrow.
Riboflavin or Vitamin B2