Studies on iron absorption and retention in malnourished Indian subjects, using Fe-59 and whole-body counting

The gastrointestinal absorption of iron under various conditions in representatives of the Indian population, and several related matters, have been investigated. Percentage absorption was determined by whole-body counting of 59Fe, or by measuring the concentration of 55Fe in the blood, at about two weeks after administration of the respective tracer. It was confirmed or established that: (1) food or supplemental iron, if available at all, tends to be absorbed from the intestines as if present there in one of two alternative pools: heme and non heme; (2) 30%-50% of iron measured chemically in Indian foods appears to be in an unavailable form, for example as a contaminant in adventitiously present dust; (3) fortification of the diet with iron may be feasible by adding FePO4 + 2 molar NaHSO4 to common salt under suitable conditions; (4) monkeys appear to be sufficiently similar to humans in their iron absorption characteristics that they may be the best available non-human model for preliminary experimental investigations of iron absorption; and (5) a promising preparative method for liquid scintillation counting of 55Fe present in blood is to extract it into toluene in the presence of di (2-ethyl-hexyl) phosphate (HDEHP)