Vitamin-supplemented chewing gum can increase salivary and plasma levels of a panel of vitamins in healthy human participants

A number of commercially-available chewing gums contain health-related ingredients including vitamins. The ability of chewing gum to deliver these ingredients to the plasma has not been well-studied. We examined the release and plasma levels of a panel of vitamins from two supplemented gums in 15 healthy human participants. We examined the release of vitamins from the gums into the saliva using a single-blind randomized design, and then determined the acute impact of chewing vitamin-supplemented gums on plasma vitamin concentrations in a single-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study. Retinol, thiamine, riboflavin, niacinamide, pyridoxine, folic acid, cyanocobalamin, ascorbic acid, and α-tocopherol were released into the saliva by chewing. Plasma vitamin concentrations were increased for retinol (75–96%), pyridoxine (906–1077%), ascorbic acid (64–141%) and α-tocopherol (502–418%) after chewing the supplemented gums, compared to baseline. To our knowledge, this is the first study examining the delivery of vitamins using chewing gum in humans.