Riboflavin


 * Chemical Formula: C17H20N4O6**
 * Molar Mass:376.36 g mol**
 * Apperance: Orange Crystals**

Riboflavin also knows as vitamin B2 is an essential nutrient in humans and animals. Riboflavin, also known as **vitamin**B 2, gets its name from its sugar alcohol (ribitol), and from its yellow color and its fluorescence under UV light (flavin comes from the Latin word for yellow). Its systematic names are 7,8-dimethyl-10-(D-ribo-2,3,4,5-tetrahydroxypentyl)isoalloxazine and 7,8-dimethyl-10-ribitylisoalloxazine; its formula is C 17 H 20 N 4 O 6. Riboflavin has a molar mass of 376.37 grams (13.3 ounces). It is heat-stabile but easily degraded by light. Riboflavin was referred to as vitamin G in the early part of the twentieth century because it was recognized as a dietary factor needed for growth. Riboflavin was first isolated in 1879, and its chemical structure was determined in 1933. It was discovered in the 1933 when Otto Warburg successfully isolated riboflavin as the result of detailed research into the B-complex vitamins.



Milk, cheese, leafy vegetables, tomatoes, mushrooms and almonds are all good sources of vitamin B2. They are also all sources that are very common to us. A riboflavin deficency can cause a condition called ariboflavinosis. Syptoms of ariboflavinosis are cracks around the mouth and sore red skin.

It is the central component of the [|cofactors] [|FAD] and [|FMN], and is therefore required by all [|flavoproteins]. As such, vitamin B2 is required for a wide variety of cellular processes. It plays a key role in energy metabolism, and for the [|metabolism] of [|fats], [|ketone bodies], [|carbohydrates], and [|proteins]. It is also used as an orange-red food colour additive, designated in Europe as the [|E number] E101,[|[][|2][|]]

The name "riboflavin" comes from "[|ribose]" (the sugar whose [|reduced] form, [|ribitol], forms part of its structure) and "[|flavin]", the ring-moiety which imparts the yellow color to the oxidized molecule (from Latin //flavus//, "yellow"). The reduced form, which occurs in metabolism along with the oxidized form, is colorless. Riboflavin is best known visually as the vitamin which imparts the orange color to solid B-vitamin preparations, the yellow color to vitamin supplement solutions, and the unusual fluorescent-yellow color to the urine of persons who supplement with high-dose B-complex preparations (no other vitamin imparts any color to urine).

Examples of where one could find riboflavin would be in foods such as grains or plants.

Toxicity:
Riboflavin is not toxic when taken orally, as its low solubility keeps it from being absorbed in dangerous amounts within the digestive tract. Although toxic doses can be administered by injection, any excess at nutritionally relevant doses is excreted in the urine, imparting a bright yellow color when in large quantities. In humans, there is no evidence for riboflavin toxicity produced by excessive intakes, though it helps relieve muscle pain.[citation needed] Even when 400 mg/d of riboflavin was given orally to subjects in one study for three months to investigate the efficacy of riboflavin in the prevention of migraine headache, no short-term side effects were reported.