Menu
  1. Home»
  2. Essential Nutrients»
  3. Vitamins»
  4. Vitamin B5»
NutriSavvy_Know_Your_Food_Options_Banner

We use vitamin B5 or pantothenic acid to convert fats, proteins and carbohydrates into energy, particularly fats. Pantothenic acid is essential to make and break down fatty acids. It also helps us make hormones, and it helps us maintain optimal conditions for our skin, hair and nails.

Being a water-soluble vitamin, we excrete what we don’t use through our urine, so we need to ingest it every day. The good news is that pantothenic acid is present in almost every whole food, plant-based or animal-based, so deficiency is extremely rare.

Same as with biotin, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025 do not offer an intake recommendation for this nutrient, or even mention vitamin B5 or pantothenic acid at all. For this reason, we are using the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine intake recommendations on our personalized nutrition calculator.

Scroll down to try our personalized calculator, see some top whole-food, plant-based sources of pantothenic acid, and to learn some interesting facts.

Top Whole-Food, Plant-Based Sources

Hover over each food below to see how much vitamin B5 or pantothenic acid you can get with one serving. Click on each food’s picture to visit its interactive page with a personalized calculator of all the nutrition you can get from one serving, more information about how it supports our body, tips to choose and prepare it, interesting facts, and more!

Lentils

Lentils

1 cup cooked = 25% DV

Link
Oats

Oats

1 cup dry = 18% DV

Link
Green Peas

Green Peas

1 cup cooked = 23% DV

Link
Broccoli

Broccoli

1 cup cooked = 19% DV

Link
Portabella Mushrooms

Portabella Mushrooms

1 c cooked = 30% DV

Link
White Mushrooms

White Mushrooms

1 c cooked = 67% DV

Link
Shiitake Mushrooms

Shiitake Mushrooms

1 c cooked = 104% DV

Link

Vitamin B5 Personalized Calculator

See how much vitamin B5 or pantothenic acid you and your family members need, according to the Food and Nutrition Board (FNB) at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Terminology:

  • Daily Value (DV): The recommended amount of nutrients to consume each day for individuals who are 4 years old or older.
  • Adequate Intake (AI): This is an approximation of nutrient intake by a group or groups of healthy people, based on age, sex, and whether a woman is pregnant, lactating, or none. This is used when a Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) cannot be determined.
  • Upper Intake Level (UL): The highest amount of nutrient intake that will not pose adverse health effects on most individuals.

Important Things to Know

Hover over each of the interesting facts below to flip the tiles and learn more details.

Check out the interesting facts below! Tap on the red triangles to flip the tiles and learn more details.

Pantothenic comes from pantos or everywhere in Greek.

Vitamin B5 was first isolated in 1931 by American biochemist Roger J. Williams. Since small amounts can be found in almost every food, he decided to name it pantothenic acid after the Greek word pantos that means everywhere in Greek. 

Pantethine may help lower our cholesterol levels.

Our body converts vitamin b5 or pantothenic acid into pantethine, which is the key component of coenzyme A. And our body needs coenzyme A to metabolize fats. But what happens if we take pantethine supplements directly? Well, studies like this one and this one show that high-dose pantethine supplements (600 to 900 mg) can help reduce cholesterol levels and LDL cholesterol levels in people with low to moderate cardiovascular risk.

Make sure you consult your doctor before taking supplements for any health condition.

Dexpanthenol can help treat mild to moderate dermatitis in children.

Dexpanthenol is a pantothenic acid derivative that works as a great, nonsteroidal treatment for children with atopic dermatitis (eczema). This study showed that treatment with hydrocortisone ointment and treatment with dexpanthenol ointment were equally effective.

Comparison of Iron Sources

You may be wondering about other potential sources of vitamin B5 or pantothenic acid, such as supplements and animal-based foods. Below, we make a quick and simple comparison between the three options.

Best source!
Plant-Based
Pantothenic acid is present in various plant-based foods. Half a cup of shiitake mushrooms offers about 50% of our DV. Other mushrooms are also a good source. A well-balanced, plant-based diet can easily provide all the pantothenic acid we need.
Supplements
Supplementation is not necessary in healthy people with well-balanced diets as pantothenic acid is present in nearly every plant-based and animal-based diets.
While toxicity has not been reported in humans, taking high amounts (10 mg) in supplements can lead to mild diarrhea and an upset stomach.
Animal-based
Organ meats are very rich in pantothenic acid, other animal-based sources include beef, chicken and tuna. However, animal-based foods are not necessary to reach the RDAs of pantothenic acid as plant-based foods are also great sources without the health risks posed by animal-based foods, such as increased cancer risk, cardiovascular disease, diabetes type 2, inflammation, among others.

References