Assessment and speciation of bioaccessible iron in food

• Grant number: 12/10518-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: August 01, 2012
• End date: July 31, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Chemistry - Analytical Chemistry
• Principal Investigator: Márcia Andreia Mesquita Silva da Veiga
• Grantee: Melina Borges Teixeira Zanatta
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto (FFCLRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Iron is one of the most abundant elements in Earth's crust and is an essential nutrient for almost all living species. In biological systems, iron is present almost entirely in the form of chelates with the porphyrin ring or proteins. Iron plays many essential roles in biological systems, such as oxygen transport, respiration, energy metabolism, destruction of peroxides and DNA synthesis. The consumption of fruits, vegetables and meat in the diet is a way to get the daily requirement of this nutrient, since this is a group of foods rich in this element. Whereas only a portion of the nutrients of a food is bioavailable (or bioaccessible) during human digestion, to assess the bioaccessibility of this nutrient is very important. This work is intended to measure, by means of atomic absorption spectrometric techniques, the iron content of food within the group of fruit, vegetables and meat and then evaluate, by means of in vitro tests, the bioacessibilidade these elements in the food. This allows us to know the true nutritional value of foods commonly consumed in the diet of people and other less common, being adapted to the Brazilian soil by Embrapa, typical of the Amazon region. Because the major metabolic iron ions in the oxidation state +2, and heme metabolism, speciation in various foods of this element will be analyzed together with the in vitro tests bioacessibilidade, generating information on nutritional food analyzed providing new information in this field of research.

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

ZANATTA, Melina Borges Teixeira. Assessment and speciation of bioaccessible iron in food. 2014. Master's Dissertation - Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto (PCARP/BC) Ribeirão Preto.