Vitamin B5, also called pantothenic acid, is a water-soluble B vitamin your body uses to convert food into energy and build essential molecules like hormones and cholesterol. Adults need 5 mg per day, and because B5 is found in a wide range of foods, most people get enough without trying. Its name actually comes from the Greek word “pantos,” meaning “everywhere,” which hints at how common it is in the food supply.
What B5 Does in Your Body
The main job of vitamin B5 is to help your body produce coenzyme A, a molecule involved in hundreds of chemical reactions. Coenzyme A is central to how your cells break down fats, carbohydrates, and proteins for energy. It also plays a role in building fatty acids, steroid hormones, and the neurotransmitters your brain relies on to send signals.
Without enough coenzyme A, your body can’t efficiently extract energy from food or manufacture the fats that make up cell membranes. This is why B5 touches so many systems at once: energy production, hormone balance, and even the way your liver processes and clears substances from your blood.
Best Food Sources
B5 shows up in meats, vegetables, grains, and dairy, so a varied diet typically covers your needs. That said, some foods are far richer than others. Beef liver stands out dramatically, with 8.3 mg in a 3-ounce serving, more than 160% of the daily value in a single portion. Fortified breakfast cereals often deliver the full 5 mg daily value per serving.
Beyond those top sources, here’s what a typical serving provides:
- Shiitake mushrooms (½ cup cooked): 2.6 mg
- Sunflower seeds (¼ cup): 2.4 mg
- Chicken breast (3 ounces roasted): 1.3 mg
- Tuna (3 ounces cooked): 1.2 mg
- Avocado (half): 1.0 mg
- Milk (1 cup, 2%): 0.9 mg
- Baked potato (1 medium): 0.7 mg
- Hard-boiled egg (1 large): 0.7 mg
- Broccoli (½ cup boiled): 0.5 mg
- Peanuts (¼ cup roasted): 0.5 mg
Fruits tend to be low in B5. Apples and cherry tomatoes contain virtually none per serving, while a clementine delivers just 0.1 mg. If your diet leans heavily toward fruit and raw vegetables with little meat, dairy, or legumes, you may want to pay attention to where your B5 is coming from.
How Much You Need by Age
The recommended daily intake shifts with age and life stage. Infants need just 1.7 to 1.8 mg, and the amount gradually increases through childhood: 2 mg for ages 1 to 3, 3 mg for ages 4 to 8, and 4 mg for ages 9 to 13. By age 14, the recommendation reaches the adult level of 5 mg per day. Pregnant women need 6 mg, and breastfeeding women need 7 mg to account for the B5 passed through milk.
No tolerable upper intake level has been established for B5, because no consistent toxic effects have been documented from high doses. It’s water-soluble, so your body excretes what it doesn’t use through urine. Very high supplemental doses (in the range of several grams) may cause digestive discomfort like diarrhea, but this is uncommon at normal supplement levels.
Your Gut Bacteria Also Produce B5
An interesting wrinkle: you don’t rely entirely on food for your B5 supply. Bacteria in your large intestine can synthesize pantothenic acid on their own. Most dietary B5 gets absorbed higher up in the digestive tract, in the small intestine. By the time food reaches the colon, the bacteria there are largely making and sharing their own supply. Certain bacterial groups, particularly Bacteroidota and many Pseudomonadota species, carry the genetic machinery to produce B5 from scratch, while other gut microbes depend on their neighbors to share it.
How much this bacterial production actually contributes to your total B5 levels isn’t fully quantified. The cells lining your colon can absorb some of this bacterially produced B5, but it likely plays a supporting rather than primary role compared to what you absorb from food.
Deficiency Is Rare but Distinctive
Because B5 is so widespread in foods, true deficiency is uncommon in people eating a normal diet. When it does occur, typically in cases of severe malnutrition or specific experimental conditions, the symptoms are distinctive. The hallmark is burning feet syndrome: a sensation of numbness and burning in the feet that can be quite uncomfortable. This symptom was first identified in malnourished prisoners of war during World War II.
Other deficiency symptoms include fatigue, weakness, irritability, restlessness, sleep disturbances, and muscle cramps. These overlap with many other nutritional deficiencies, which is why burning feet syndrome is the most specific clinical clue pointing toward low B5.
B5 and Skin Health
You may have noticed panthenol (a form of B5) listed on skincare product labels. This isn’t just marketing. B5 plays a direct role in skin cell behavior. Lab research shows that when skin cells called keratinocytes are deprived of pantothenic acid, they stop multiplying normally and shift prematurely into a mature, non-dividing state. B5 depletion also reduces the production of growth factors and collagen building blocks in fibroblasts, the cells responsible for maintaining the skin’s structural framework.
In practical terms, this means B5 supports the skin’s ability to repair itself and retain moisture. Panthenol in topical products works as a moisturizer because it converts to pantothenic acid in the skin and helps maintain the barrier that keeps water in. This is why you’ll find it in wound-healing creams, moisturizers, and after-sun products.
Supplement Forms
B5 supplements typically come as calcium pantothenate, which is the most common and affordable form. Pantethine is another supplemental form that has been studied specifically for its effects on cholesterol and triglyceride levels, though it works through a slightly different pathway than standard pantothenic acid. Both forms are well absorbed.
For most people, supplementation is unnecessary. A single chicken breast plus an avocado and a cup of milk already gets you close to the 5 mg daily target. B5 is also included in virtually every B-complex and multivitamin supplement, so if you’re already taking one of those, you’re covered. Standalone high-dose B5 supplements (sometimes marketed at 500 mg or more for acne or energy) deliver far more than your body needs, and the excess is simply excreted.