Chemical stability of vitamin B5

Abstract

The study is dedicated to the kinetics of the chemical degradation of pantothenic acid (vitamin B5). The values of the chemical degradation rate of pantothenic acid have been calculated at different pH-values varying between 2 and 12. Compared to the related pharmaceutical or food products containing this compound, the vitamin stability is considerably reduced in pure aqueous solutions. In the acidic or alkaline pH-domain, within one hour, up to 40% of the initial amount of acid can be degraded, suggesting that the rate of the degradation of pantothenic acid in these systems is considerably higher than those reported in the literature. By using MATLAB software, a complex mathematical kinetic model of degradation was proposed. The model includes the influence of pH-value and offers a good concordance with the experimental results for reaction rate (the average deviation of the calculated values of the inactivation rate from the experimental ones is ±10.21%).