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0:00
Hello, my name is Susan
Fairweather-Tait.
I'm a professor of
human nutrition in
the Norwich Medical School at
the University of East
Anglia in the UK.
I'm going to be talking
to you about vitamin B6,
also known as pyridoxine.
0:15
Vitamin B6 is a generic
descriptor for a group of
2-methyl-3-hydroxy-5-hydroxymethylpyridine
derivatives
exhibiting the biological
activity of pyridoxine.
You see, here, there
are six vitamers.
They're all metabolically
interconvertible
and they all have equal
biological activity.
The metabolically active
forms, PLP and PMP,
act as cofactors for more
than 100 enzymes involved in
amino acid metabolism,
one-carbon reactions,
glycogenolysis and
gluconeogenesis, haem synthesis,
niacin formation,
and then there are
other functions such
as lipid metabolism,
neurotransmitter synthesis
and hormone action.
You can see there's a
wide range of functions
of vitamin B6 within the body.
1:03
Foods which are
rich in vitamin B6
include grains such as
whole grain, corn, maize,
brown rice, sorghum,
quinoa, and wheat germ.
Also pulses, nuts,
seeds, potatoes,
and some herbs and spices,
for example, garlic,
curry, and ginger.
And some meat and meat products,
for example, poultry,
pork, liver and fish.
Animal tissues mainly contain
pyridoxal 5'-phosphate, PLP,
and pyridoxamine
5'-phosphate, PMP.
Whereas the plant-based
foods mainly contain
pyridoxine and
pyridoxine 5-phosphate.
The daily intakes are about 1.5
milligrams a day in women and
two milligrams a day in men.
