Vitamin B12 ELISA Kit

Vitamin B12 as a trace element belongs to the biologically important chelate formers. The basic unit con­sists of a corrin ring with cobalt as a central atom. Cobalt is sixfold coordinated by four nitrogen atoms, one cyanide and a dimethylbenzimidazol group. Vitamin B12 forms a stable complex, which is absorbed in the lower part of the small intestine, with the so-called intrinsic factor present in the gastric juice. A lack of vitamin B12 can lead among other things to pernicious anemia. This disease is not generated by an insufficient supply of vitamin B12, but by the ab­sence of intrinsic factor. A pernicious anemia can be treated by a high dosage of vitamin B12. The existing detection procedures are mainly microbiological methods, but also HPLC and thin-layer chromatography, all of which are associated with a high amount of time and instrumentation. With the present test kit it is possible, to determine vitamin B12 quantitatively in vitaminated food in a significantly faster way (2.5 to 4 hours inclusive sam­ple pretreatment) compared with a conventional microbiological assay (24 to 48 hours).