Vitamin B12
Laboratory Supplies
Available sizes: 1ml
Cobalamin, the metal-containing vitamin
Vitamin B12 is a family of cobalt-containing compounds built on a corrin ring. It is the only vitamin with a metal ion at its core, and the only one that mammals cannot obtain except through diet or microbial synthesis — the complete biosynthetic pathway exists only in bacteria and archaea.
Its solutions are a deep red, which is the cobalt-corrin complex and the reason B12 preparations are visually distinctive.
Two enzymatic roles
Nearly all B12 research traces back to two reactions:
Methionine synthase. Converts homocysteine to methionine, linking B12 to folate metabolism and to one-carbon transfer generally.
Methylmalonyl-CoA mutase. Converts methylmalonyl-CoA to succinyl-CoA, part of odd-chain fatty acid and branched-chain amino acid metabolism.
Both reactions have measurable markers — homocysteine and methylmalonic acid — which is why B12 status is unusually tractable to study compared with most micronutrients.
Forms
Cyanocobalamin, hydroxocobalamin, methylcobalamin and adenosylcobalamin differ in the group attached to the cobalt and in their handling characteristics. Which form a preparation contains is recorded on its documentation and is a material detail when comparing results between studies.
Related products
B12 appears as a constituent of the Lipo-C + Vitamin B12 formulation. NAD+ and Glutathione are the other cofactor-type compounds in this catalogue.
Documentation and verification
Certificates of Analysis are published for tested products and batches. A certificate is a batch-specific record: it reports what was measured, by which method, on a stated date, against a batch identifier. It is evidence about the sample analysed at the time of analysis, and it is silent on attributes it does not list and on what has happened to the material since.
The batch number is the field that connects the document to a physical vial. Where the identifier on a vial does not appear on a certificate, the certificate does not describe that vial, however thorough the analysis behind it was. Batch records can be searched directly, and the guides below explain what each field establishes and what it does not.
- Verify a batchSearch a batch number for the certificate records published against it.
- How to read a certificate of analysisWhat each field reports, and the limits of what a certificate can establish.
- Certificate, specification and safety data sheetThree documents that answer three different questions.
- Storage and handlingWhat defined storage conditions mean, and why cold slows degradation.
- Batch numbers and traceabilityHow an identifier ties material to the analysis describing it.
Supplied for laboratory research use only. Not for human or veterinary use.