Vitamin B15 A Review and Update

During the past several years, a great furor has arisen over the promotion and sale of pangamic acid also known as Vitamin B15. This was stimulated to some extent by an article in New York magazine (Nobile, 1978) extolling this "vitamin", resulting in near exhaustion of supplies in local retail outlets, a phenomenon which eventually spread to other areas of the country. This article presents some of the evidence supporting the claims of efficacy by the proponents of B15 as well as some pertinent history and facts surrounding the recent court decision regarding sale of this controversial substance. Vitamin B15 has been particularly touted as an "energiser, a natural metabolite which increases the efficiency of certain metabolic oxidative processes, thereby being recommended for use by athletes to increase their performance and endurance", for example. Vitamin B15 and pangamic acid are used synonymously in this article. However, this substance is not specifically defined because studies noted in