HOME › FORMULAS › INGREDIENTS › PANTOTHENIC ACID (VITAMIN B5)
Pantothenic acid (Vitamin B5)
A water-soluble B vitamin that your body uses to make coenzyme A, which takes part in the Krebs cycle, in burning and building fats, and in making cholesterol and steroid hormones. It carries four authorised EU health claims, EFSA has set no upper limit for it, and it sits at 6 mg in three formulas. Our notes record a real deficiency as rare outside severe malnutrition.
WHAT WE ARE ALLOWED TO SAY
Four claims. All of them authorised.
These are the wordings on the EU register for pantothenic acid, and we do not paraphrase them into something that sounds stronger. All four carry the same condition: the product has to be at least a source of pantothenic acid under Regulation (EC) 1924/2006. Each of our three formulas serves 6 mg, which is 100% of the NRV.These are the wordings on the EU register for pantothenic acid, and we do not paraphrase them. All four need the product to be at least a source of it. Each of our formulas serves 100% of the NRV.
Pantothenic acid is not the headline claim on any of its three formulas: that comes from the niacin in Energy & vitality, the caffeine in Cognitive & focus and the magnesium in Chronic cortisol. The steroid hormone claim is about normal synthesis and metabolism. It is not a claim that pantothenic acid lowers your cortisol, and we do not use it as one.
WHY CALCIUM PANTOTHENATE
The claims are the same. The liquid is the point.
The four claims attach to pantothenic acid, not to a particular salt, so the form is not a claim argument and we do not use it as one. Our file names calcium D-pantothenate as the form of choice: it is the standard form in EFSA's work, it is stable in liquid, and it dissolves easily in water with a neutral taste.
The calcium salt of the vitamin. Once in your body it is split back into pantothenic acid. Our form file rates it as the most stable and best absorbed form, which is a note we record, not a claim.
Our form file marks it as stable in liquid, soluble in water at around 350 g per litre and neutral in taste, and it keeps best between pH 4 and 7. Every VION dose is a liquid, so that is what the choice turns on.
Our file lists both as sensitivities. How that is handled between production and your cartridge is not documented yet, and we would rather write that down than leave it out.
Our figures on how it behaves in your body are thin. Our notes put the absorption of pantothenic acid at 40 to 61%, while the form file lists calcium pantothenate at 100%, and the two figures have not been reconciled yet. It takes days rather than hours to act, its half-life is not documented, and our file records that it is not significantly broken down by the CYP liver enzymes. None of this is an authorised claim.Our notes put its absorption at 40 to 61%, while the form file lists 100%, and the two have not been reconciled yet. Its half-life is not documented. None of this is a claim.
WHERE IT APPEARS
Three of the twenty-nine carry pantothenic acid.
Always 6 mg, always in the morning dose, and always a small part of a larger formula: with the other B vitamins and coenzyme Q10 in Energy & vitality, with caffeine, L-theanine, citicoline and ginkgo in Cognitive & focus, and with ashwagandha, phosphatidylserine, rhodiola and magnesium in Chronic cortisol. All three are still pending clinical validation, and each has its own exclusions, listed on its page.
THE CEILING
No EFSA limit. An 18 mg reference in our file.
EFSA has not set an upper limit for pantothenic acid: in 2014 it found too little evidence to fix one, and the US Institute of Medicine has not set one either. The reference in our file is the German BfR's proposed maximum for a food supplement, 18 mg a day, the most conservative in the EU. Each formula carries 6 mg, so even if all three were in your plan on the same morning, your total from us would be 18 mg: on the reference, not over it. The engine has no rule written for pantothenic acid yet.EFSA has set no upper limit for pantothenic acid. The reference in our file is the German BfR's 18 mg a day for a supplement. All three formulas together would come to exactly 18 mg.
6 mg per formula is 100% of the NRV. EFSA's adult reference intake is 5 mg a day, and our file puts the usual daily amount at 5 to 10 mg. That is a reason to include it, not a permission to promise anything.
Our file records no toxicity in studies of up to 1 g a day, and mild diarrhoea only above 2 to 3 g a day, more than a hundred times what one formula serves. Having no upper limit is not the same as being safe at any dose, which is why we still keep the BfR figure as our reference.
Our file records no absolute contraindication for pantothenic acid in healthy people. If you are pregnant or breastfeeding, our file considers it safe at normal intake, but more than 10 mg a day is not recommended unless a doctor prescribes it; Cognitive & focus and Chronic cortisol are ruled out in pregnancy and breastfeeding anyway, which leaves 6 mg from Energy & vitality. Do not go over the recommended daily dose, keep it out of the reach of young children, and do not use it in place of a varied, balanced diet. The formulas that carry it add their own exclusions: Energy & vitality is ruled out with liver disease or vitamin K antagonist blood thinners; Cognitive & focus with those blood thinners, heart disease, pregnancy, breastfeeding or if you are under 18; Chronic cortisol with liver, heart, thyroid or autoimmune disease, hyperandrogenism, sedative medication, pregnancy, breastfeeding or if you are under 18.
WHAT IT REACTS WITH
Documented pairs, not hunches.
Pantothenic acid is one of the 140 ingredients in our library, so it has 139 possible partners. We have documented three of them, out of the 443 pairs on file, and none with medication. Two of the three are about binders in your gut that keep it from being absorbed.
Both bind pantothenic acid in the gut. Charcoal can cut how much you absorb by 30 to 90%, so it never shares a dose and stays at least 3 hours away. White clay (kaolin) stays at least 2 hours away. No VION formula carries either, so this matters if you take them separately.
Both are taken up by the same carrier in your gut. At the doses we use, 6 mg of B5 and the 100 µg of biotin in Skin, hair & nails, the competition does not matter and they can share a dose. Only with biotin from 1 mg and B5 from 100 mg would the engine keep them 2 hours apart. Our notes say alpha-lipoic acid uses the same carrier too, but that pair is not in our table yet.
No drug interaction for pantothenic acid is in our drug table. Our ingredient notes mention only that long courses of antibiotics may reduce the pantothenic acid made by your gut bacteria, a minor point that is not a documented pair. If you take regular medication, ask a healthcare professional before starting any formula.
None of its formula partners, from the caffeine in Cognitive & focus to the magnesium in Chronic cortisol, is in our table as a pair with it yet. Across the library, 443 of the 9,730 possible pairs are documented, which is 4.55%. The rest are not "safe", they are simply unchecked, and we would rather write that down than let the number look like a badge.None of its formula partners is in our table as a pair with it yet. Across the library, 443 of the 9,730 possible pairs are documented, which is 4.55%. The rest are not safe, they are simply unchecked.
SOURCES
Everything on this page, with its reference.
Reviewed by VION nutrition team · last reviewed 16 September 2026Read the introduction to Vitamin B5 (Pantothenic Acid) →
140 INGREDIENTS · 64 IN USE TODAY
Every one of them has a page like this.
What it is, what we are allowed to say about it, which formulas carry it, what it reacts with and where each of those statements comes from. No proprietary blends, no hidden amounts.