Vitamin B Complex

Thiamine (vitamin B1), riboflavin (vitamin B2), niacin (vitamin B3), pyridoxine (vitamin B6), and cyanocobalamin (vitamin B12) are the main B-complex vitamins. Like other vitamins, their importance lies in their ability to make us unwell and look unattractive if they are deficient in our body.

Thiamine deficiency affects he heart (beriberi) and nerves (dry beriberi and wernicke-korsakoff syndrome). Riboflavin deficiency manifests clinically as angular stomatitis (singaw), cheilosis (inflammation of the lips), glossitis (inflammation of the tongue), seborrheic dermatitis (severe dandruff-like reactions of the face and scalp), and anemia. Niacin deficiency leads to pellagra while a seborrhea-like dermatitis, glositis, angular stomatitis, and signs from the central nervous system, and blood abnormalities characterize pyroxidone when deficient. Impairment in cyanocobalamin conversion reactions is responsible for both megaloblastic anemia, through alterationin folate metabolism, and the alteration infolate metabolism, and the neurological complications of B12 deficiency like neuropathies.

The B complex vitamins, although not widely used for the treatment of dermatological disorders, are reported to be effective in some skin diseases. Topical niacinamide, the physiologically active form of niacin, has been shown to be effective in the treatment of necrobiosis vulgaris (pimples), comparable to that of topical clindamysin. In combination with tetracycline, nicotinamide, owing to its anti-inflammatory properties, was also noted to be useful in bullous pemphigoid and dermatitis herpitiformis.

Pyridoxine, used in the management of erythropoietic porphyria and cyaconobalamin in combination with folic acid, is used for the treatment of vitiligo. Lately, a few cosmetic companies are using B complex vitamins in creams and shampoos to “whiten the skin and beautify the hair.”