Vitamin B6

Vitamin B₆ is a water soluble vitamin essential for maintaining health.

As with other water soluble vitamins, small amounts of vitamin B₆ can be stored in your body, primarily in muscles.

However, foods containing vitamin B₆ should be included as part of your daily food intake.

There are three forms of this vitamin: Pyridoxine, Pyridoxal, and Pyridoxamine.

These three forms of vitamin B₆ can be converted into the coenzyme pyridoxal phosphate (PLP).  

Functions

Vitamin B₆ as coenzyme PLP, interacts with more than 100 enzymes in a variety of metabolic reactions such as:

• Amino acid metabolism:
  • PLP transfers amino groups (NH₂) from an amino acid to a keto acid which enables the synthesis of non-essential amino acids.
• Protein metabolism
• Urea metabolism
• Conversion of tryptophan to niacin (vitamin B₃) or to serotonin (neurotransmitter)
• Conversion of tyrosine to dopamine (neurotransmitter)
• Synthesis of heme (non -protein part of hemoglobin), blood protein and red blood cell synthesis
• Synthesis of nucleic acids (DNA and RNA)
• Synthesis of lecithin (a phospholipid)
• Initial step of glycogen metabolism and degradation into glucose
• Synthesis of cysteine from methionine
• Formation of glycine from serine
• Sphingolipid synthesis: Sphingomyelins are found in large amounts in the myelin sheath of nerve tissues
• Synthesis of carnitine required for fatty acid oxidation
• Synthesis of taurine a neuromodulatory compound generated from cysteine metabolism
• Steroid hormone production
• May influence cognitive performance and immune function

Recommended daily allowance (RDA)

The RDA is the average daily amount of vitamin B₆ considered adequate to meet the needs of most healthy people...link to the full article to learn more.