Niacinamide (Vitamin B3)

Niacinamide, also known as nicotinamide, is the amide form of vitamin B3, chemically related to but functionally distinct from nicotinic acid (niacin), the carboxylic-acid form of the same vitamin. Both forms are converted in the body to the same essential coenzymes, NAD and NADP, central to energy metabolism in every cell, but niacinamide does not produce the characteristic skin-flushing reaction that nicotinic acid can cause at higher doses, which is a large part of why niacinamide is the preferred form for most nutritional supplementation, food fortification and topical cosmetic use.

At room temperature it is a white, essentially odourless crystalline powder, freely soluble in water — markedly more so than nicotinic acid — and also soluble in alcohol and glycerin, properties that make it straightforward to formulate into a wide range of liquid, solid and topical dosage and cosmetic forms.

Where it fits in the value chain

Niacinamide's largest volume use is as a vitamin fortification and supplementation ingredient, added to multivitamin formulations, food and beverage fortification programmes, and animal feed premixes to meet established nutritional requirements. A separate, rapidly grown use is in topical cosmetic and dermatological formulation, where niacinamide is valued for its skin-barrier-supporting and brightening properties and has become one of the most widely used active ingredients in modern skincare. It is also used in certain pharmaceutical formulations and, in smaller volume, as an analytical and laboratory reagent.

Grades we supply

Chelora Chemicals offers Niacinamide meeting USP/EP pharmacopoeial and FCC (food-chemical codex) specifications, suited to pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, food-fortification and cosmetic formulation. Each grade is supplied with a batch-wise certificate of analysis covering assay, heavy metals and microbial limits.

Niacinamide is produced predominantly from 3-cyanopyridine, itself made by the ammoxidation of 3-methylpyridine (beta-picoline): the nitrile group of 3-cyanopyridine is then hydrolysed under controlled conditions, stopping deliberately at the amide stage rather than continuing on to the carboxylic acid (nicotinic acid), using either an enzymatic (nitrile hydratase) process or a controlled chemical hydrolysis. The enzymatic route, now widely adopted commercially, offers excellent selectivity for stopping cleanly at the amide without over-hydrolysis to the acid, together with a milder reaction profile than the older chemical hydrolysis methods.

An older, now largely superseded route oxidised 3-methylpyridine directly to nicotinic acid first, which was then converted to niacinamide via its ester or acid chloride and reacted with ammonia; the direct nitrile-hydrolysis route from 3-cyanopyridine is more efficient and is the dominant modern commercial process. The crude product is purified by recrystallisation to reach pharmacopoeial purity.