ABSTRACT
Hydrosoluble vitamins B1, B2, B6 and PP are essential organic substances for human organism, functioning as coenzymes on several metabolic cycles. In the present investigation four vitamins of B complex and its vitamers contents were determined in royal jelly samples marketed in São Paulo, Brazil. A single extraction process was employed, and each vitamin was determined by HPLC using C18 column and detected by fluorescence. Four samples from different suppliers were analyzed, and the results varied from 0.08 to 0.41 mg/100g (vitamin B1 orthiamine); from 0.01 to 0.05 mg/100g (vitamin B2 or ribofl avin); from 0.13 to 0.38 mg/100g (piridoxal - vitamin B6); from 0.26 to 1.38 mg/100g (piridoxamine - vitamin B6); from 0.21 to 0.57 mg/100g (niacin - vitamin PP);and from 1.56 to 2.00 mg/100g (niacinamide - vitamin PP). These data show that royal jelly is not an important source of the analyzed vitamins, though the results indicate that the employed technique is suitable for determining these four vitamins and its vitamers.
