New Crystalline Salts of Nicotinamide Riboside as Food Additives

• Main Authors: Günter Schabert, Robert Haase, Jaclyn Parris, Laura Pala, Adrian Hery-Barranco, Bernhard Spingler, Urs Spitz
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-05-01
• Series: Molecules
• Subjects: nicotinamide riboside; B3 supplement; NR⁺ salts; crystal structures; salt screening
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/26/9/2729

NR⁺ is a highly effective vitamin B₃ type supplement due to its unique ability to replenish NAD⁺ levels. While NR⁺ chloride is already on the market as a nutritional supplement, its synthesis is challenging, expensive, and low yielding, making it cumbersome for large-scale industrial production. Here we report the novel crystalline NR⁺ salts, <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">d</span>/<span style="font-variant: small-caps;">l</span>/<span style="font-variant: small-caps;">dl</span>-hydrogen tartrate and <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">d</span>/<span style="font-variant: small-caps;">l</span>/<span style="font-variant: small-caps;">dl</span>-hydrogen malate. Their high-yielding, one-pot manufacture does not require specific equipment and is suitable for multi-ton scale production. These new NR⁺ salts seem ideal for nutritional applications due to their bio-equivalence compared to the approved NR⁺ chloride. In addition, the crystal structures of all stereoisomers of NR⁺ hydrogen tartrate and NR⁺ hydrogen malate and a comparison to the known NR⁺ halogenides are presented.