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Biological Availability of Iron Supplements for Rats, Chicks and Humans¹

Department of Nutrition, College of Biological Science, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada N1G 2W1

Fourteen experiments were conducted on the effect of protein and carbohydrate sources in the assay diets on the relative biological values (RBV) of food grade sodium iron pyrophosphate (NaFePP) and ferric orthophosphate (FePO₄) vs. ferrous sulfate (FeSO₄) for rats and chicks, using the response in blood hemoglobin to graded levels of supplemental iron as the assay criterion. Two trials were made with volunteers to estimate the RBV of NaFePP and FePO₄ for humans, based on the increase in plasma iron 2 hours after ingestion of 100 mg of iron of a test dose following an overnight fast. The RBV of iron from NaFePP and FePO₄ for rats were consistently lower when the basal diet contained nonfat dried milk (9 to 16 and 28, respectively, vs. FeSO₄ = 100) than when casein was used (25 to 28 and 49, respectively). The addition of 22% ß-lactose, replacing sucrose in a diet containing casein fed to rats, significantly reduced the RBV of iron from NaFePP from 25 to 15, the addition of 22% -lactose or 40% glucose in place of sucrose had no effect on the RBV of this iron source. The RBV of iron from NaFePP and FePO₄ for chicks were 4 to 6 and 4, respectively, with the source of dietary protein having no effect. Very low RBV of iron from NaFePP and FePO₄ (4.3 and 5.9, respectively, vs. FeSO₄ = 100) were also obtained with human subjects.

KEY WORDS: • iron availability • rats • chicks • humans

¹ Supported by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food and by National Health Grant No. 605-7-696 made by the Department of National Health and Welfare, Canada.

² Present address: J. H. Heinz Company of Canada, Limited, Leamington, Ontario, Canada. This paper is in part from a thesis presented to the Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Guelph, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the M.Sc. degree in Nutrition, April, 1974. A preliminary paper was presented at the 57th Annual Meeting of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, Atlantic City, N.J. April 15–20, 1973, Federation Proc. 32, 923 (Abstr.).

³ Present address: 113 5th Line, Streetsville, Ontario, Canada.

Manuscript received 23 June 1975.