Pyridoxal-phosphate, otherwise known as pyridoxal-5-phosphate or, more commonly, P5P, is the active form of Vitamin B6. Vitamin B6 serves countless important functions in the body, and that means that P5P does, too.
P5P is naturally occurring, but it is often sold as a supplement. If you've ever looked through the vitamin and supplement section of your local grocery or health food store, you may have seen a variety of P5P pills, tabs, and capsules.
But what is P5P? Let's look into it.
Word Roots
According to PubMed Health, a phosphate is simply a form of phosphoric acid, which contains phosphorous. Phosphorous is a mineral that can be found in many high protein foods, including beans, milk, nuts, and meat.P5P and Vitamin B6
P5P is important because it is an essential factor in how, or if, B6 vitamins work in the body. Just a few functions that P5P is crucial for include: various transamination, decarboxylation, glycogen hydrolysis, and synthesis pathways involving carbohydrate, sphingolipid, amino acid, heme, and neurotransmitter metabolism. A book published by The National Academies Press explains the cellular makeup of the B6 vitamin. Vitamin B6, it explains, comprises a group of six related compounds: pyridoxal (PL), pyridoxine (PN), pyridoxamine (PM) and their respective 5'-phosphates (PLP, PNP, PMP). That's a little wordy, but essentially, the author is saying that P5P comes in three forms: PLP, PNP, PMP. These all fall under the umbrella of P5P. The difference is where they're sourced from. The major forms in animal tissue are PLP and PMP, the book explains. Plant-derived foods contain primarily PN and PNP, sometimes in the form of a glucoside. Essentially, P5P, in whatever form it takes (PLP, PNP, or PMP) is what activates Vitamin B6. So to understand the importance of P5P and what P5P is, it's helpful to understand what Vitamin B6 does.Vitamin B
All B vitamins are important. They are crucial in supporting the body's ability to convert food to energy. B vitamins are also part of the metabolism process and support healthy-looking skin, eyes, hair, and supports liver function. They also help the nervous system function properly. Vitamin B6 is just 1 of 8 water soluble B vitamins, which each serving vital functions, either singularly, or when combined.Importance of Vitamin B6
Vitamin B6 is a factor in some of the body's most important functions. Vitamin B6 is required for the production of serotonin and helps to maintain healthy immune system functions, to protect the heart from cholesterol deposits, and to prevent kidney stone formation. Here are just a few of Vitamin B6's other key tasks in the body:- It is an essential part of the immune system, the central nervous system, and the metabolic system
- It helps maintain healthy nerve and muscle cells
- It helps produce DNA and RNA
