No reports of adverse effects of oral pantothenic acid in humans or animals were found. Therefore, a quantitative risk assessment cannot be performed and a Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL) cannot be derived for pantothenic acid.

In the absence of known toxic effects by ingestion, a lowest-observed-adverse-effect level (LOAEL) and an associated no-observed-adverse-effect level (NOAEL) cannot be determined. A search of the literature revealed no evidence of toxicity associated with the intake of pantothenic acid. Vaxman et al. (1996) noted no toxic effects of 0.2 to 0.9 g/day of pantothenate combined with ascorbic acid (1 to 3 g/day) in a study of effects on wound healing. However, another study (Haslam et al., 1984) indicated that a combination of 1.2 g of calcium pantothenate, 0.6 g of pyridoxine, 3 g of niacinamide, and 3 g of ascorbic acid taken daily for 6 weeks was associated with elevations in serum transaminase levels in children. One of these doses or the combination may therefore cause hepatotoxicity, but it is not possible from this study alone to ascribe to pantothenic acid the reported adverse effect in liver function.

A review of the literature failed to identify special subgroups that are distinctly susceptible to adverse effects of excess pantothenic acid intake.

Because national surveys do not provide data on the intake of pantothenic acid, a reasonable intake assessment of the 90th and 95th percentiles from U.S. or Canadian national surveys is not possible.

No adverse effects have been associated with high intakes of pantothenic acid.