Molybdenum
Molybdenum is a trace mineral that four enzymes need to break down sulfur amino acids, purines and some drugs. Adults need 45 µg a day, and legumes such as beans and peas are its richest food sources.
45 µga day for adults, US RDA
50 µg EU label reference, and the US amount in pregnancy
Upper limit · 2,000 µg (US) or 600 µg (EU) a day
- Richest source 288 µg in half a cup of black-eyed peas
- Main sources Beans and peas then liver, grains, nuts and dairy
- Enzymes 4 need it, sulfite oxidase the most vital
- Deficiency Never from food in healthy people
Daily amount: the US RDA for adults aged 19 and over (NIH). EU label reference (NRV) and food figure from the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements. The Caltide food library does not measure molybdenum yet.
Food Sources of Molybdenum
The Caltide food library does not measure molybdenum yet, so there is no ranking here. Plant foods take it from the soil, so the same crop can vary a lot by where it grew.
Foods With Molybdenum
- Legumesblack-eyed peas, lima beans and other dried beans and peas; half a cup of boiled black-eyed peas has about 288 µg
- Organ meatsbeef liver is one of the richest animal sources
- Grains and nutswhole grains, oats and nuts
- Dairyyogurt and milk
Molybdenum Supplements
Molybdenum is in many multivitamins, often as sodium or ammonium molybdate, and it is also sold on its own. Labels give elemental molybdenum in µg. Since a varied diet already covers the need several times over, a separate supplement adds nothing for most people.
Sources: NIH Office of Dietary Supplements, EFSA. Not medical advice.
What Is Molybdenum?
Molybdenum does nothing in the body on its own. Cells fold it into a small organic molecule called the molybdenum cofactor, and only in that form can it switch on its enzymes. A person who cannot build the cofactor is as badly off as one with no molybdenum at all.
The Four Enzymes That Need Molybdenum
Sulfite oxidase is the one the body cannot do without. When the sulfur amino acids cysteine and methionine are broken down, they leave sulfite, which is toxic to the brain. Sulfite oxidase turns it into harmless sulfate for the urine.
Xanthine oxidase breaks down purines, from DNA and from foods such as meat, into uric acid. Aldehyde oxidase and the mitochondrial amidoxime reducing component (mARC) help the liver process certain drugs and toxins.
Molybdenum Deficiency
Dietary deficiency has never been reported in healthy people. The only known case came from a patient fed by vein for a long time without molybdenum, who developed a fast heart rate, headache and night blindness that eased once it was added. The inherited form, molybdenum cofactor deficiency, is rare and severe: it shows up in newborns as seizures and brain damage from sulfite buildup, and no amount of dietary molybdenum fixes it.
How Molybdenum Affects Copper
Molybdenum's best-known effect is on another mineral. In cattle and sheep grazing on high-molybdenum pasture, it combines with sulfur in the gut into thiomolybdates that lock up copper, and the animals become copper deficient. People are not affected at normal intakes. The same chemistry was turned into a drug, tetrathiomolybdate, studied for removing excess copper in Wilson disease.
How the Body Keeps Molybdenum in Balance
Much of the molybdenum in food is absorbed, and the kidneys set the level by passing more into urine when intake rises. That is why a bean-heavy diet, which can deliver several times the RDA, causes no trouble, and why US adults eat more than the RDA on average without any harm seen.
A Common Molybdenum Mistake
Treating it as a detox mineral. Molybdenum's enzymes do process sulfites and some drugs, but extra molybdenum does not make them work faster. There is no good evidence that supplements help with sulfite sensitivity or detoxification.
How Much Molybdenum You Need
The same for men and women at every age.
| Age | Per day |
|---|---|
| 1 - 3 years | 17µg |
| 4 - 8 years | 22µg |
| 9 - 13 years | 34µg |
| 14 - 18 years | 43µg |
| 19+ years | 45µg |
| Pregnancy | 50µg |
| Breastfeeding | 50µg |
Tracking Molybdenum in Caltide
- Not totaled yetCaltide does not add up molybdenum yet, because most food data does not measure it.
Molybdenum Sources and References
The figures and claims on this page are checked against these sources.
Questions About Molybdenum
Adults need 45 µg a day (US RDA), 50 µg in pregnancy and while breastfeeding. The EU label reference is 50 µg.
Legumes. Half a cup of boiled black-eyed peas has about 288 µg in the NIH table, more than six times the daily need. Liver, whole grains, nuts, yogurt and milk follow.
It activates four enzymes. The main ones break down sulfur-containing amino acids, turn purines into uric acid, and help the liver process some drugs and toxins.
Not from food. Deficiency has been seen only in one patient fed by vein for a long time, and in a rare inherited disorder, molybdenum cofactor deficiency, where the body cannot use it at all.
Almost no one does. US adults eat more than the RDA on average, and the kidneys remove what is not needed. Many multivitamins include it anyway, often as sodium or ammonium molybdate.
2,000 µg a day for adults in the US and 600 µg in the EU. Harm from food is rare in people, and so are reports of toxicity from supplements.
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