Overview
Molybdenum is an essential cofactor for enzymes including sulfite oxidase, xanthine oxidase, aldehyde oxidase, and mitochondrial amidoxime reductase. Ufelle & Barchowsky 2021 attaches molybdenum as an essential-metal-with-toxicity-potential node and notes that excess molybdenum can resemble copper deficiency.
Status
This page is a source-map stub created during the re-ingest of Ufelle & Barchowsky 2021. Substantive molybdenum-specific expansion awaits a dedicated ingest.
Frequently asked questions
What is molybdenum and what does it do in the body?
Molybdenum is an essential trace metal that acts as a cofactor for several enzymes, including sulfite oxidase, xanthine oxidase, aldehyde oxidase, and mitochondrial amidoxime reductase Ufelle & Barchowsky 2021. It is categorized as an essential metal that also carries toxicity potential.
Can too much molybdenum be harmful?
Yes. Although molybdenum is an essential nutrient, it is described as an essential metal with toxicity potential, and excess molybdenum can resemble copper deficiency Ufelle & Barchowsky 2021. The page does not provide specific intake levels or dose thresholds.
How does excess molybdenum affect copper in the body?
According to Ufelle & Barchowsky 2021, excess molybdenum can resemble copper deficiency. The page does not detail the underlying mechanism beyond noting this interaction.
Sources
- Ufelle & Barchowsky 2021 — Ufelle AC, Barchowsky A, 2021. Toxic Effects of Metals, Ch 23 in Casarett & Doull’s Essentials of Toxicology, 4th ed.
References
Works cited in this page’s text, in first-appearance order. This is not the full corpus for this page; it is only what the prose above draws on. The complete set of sources is listed under Sources below. Each title links to its source record, which carries the ingest receipt, the extracted values, and the file hash of the document it was built from.
- Toxic Effects of Metals (Chapter 23), in Casarett & Doull’s Essentials of Toxicology, Fourth EditionTextbook
Update history
The five most recent substantive edits to this page, classified major (evidence or structure moved), correction (a published value or statement was wrong and has been fixed), or minor (narrative rewritten without changing the underlying evidence). Each description is derived from what the edit did to this page; the linked commit is the authoritative record, routine regeneration passes are excluded, and the full version history lives in git. When DOI minting comes online (see schema docs), each entry below will also link to a version-pinned DataCite DOI.
| Commit | Date | Change | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| a8052bb | 2026-08-09 | major | 1 source added; contamination-profile values revised; 9 sections added |