Health & Environmental Research Online (HERO)


Print Feedback Export to File
56527 
Journal Article 
Studies on the bioavailability of zinc in man II Absorption of zinc from organic and inorganic sources 
Solomons, NW; Jacob, RA; Pineda, O; Viteri, FE 
1979 
1 
Translational Research: Journal of Laboratory and Clinical Medicine
ISSN: 1931-5244
EISSN: 1878-1810 
94 
335-343 
Oysters and herring, two foods reported to be extraordinarily rich in zinc, were used to determine whether such foods could be used in conjunction with serial measurements of plasma zinc concentration to quantify the absorption of zinc in man. A dose of 120 gm of Atlantic oysters contained 108 mg of elemental zinc and produced a mean elevation in plasma zinc of 142 ± 22 Ág/dl (mean ± S.E.M.) at 3 hr after ingestion. Both black beans
and corn tortillas, at intakes of 120 gm, decreased the bioavailability of zinc from oysters, and inhibition was significantly greater by tortillas than by beans. In the presence of black beans, equivalent doses of elemental zinc as ZnSO4À 7H20 and as oysters produced indistinguishable plasma zinc patterns. In the presence of tortillas, absorption was slightly greater from inorganic zinc than from oysters, but the biological importance of this
difference is unclear. A dose of 120 gm of the herring used in this study contained only 2 mg of elemental zinc. When 70 gm of tortillas were ingested with the herring, plasma zinc concentration declined significantly. For Atlantic oyster, the richest known animal source of zinc, no evidence for a distinct, more available pool of dietary zinc, analagous to the "heme iron" pool of dietary iron, was demonstrable. Our data did show the effective use of Atlantic oysters as a source of organic zinc in the study in humans of the absorption and bioavailability of zinc.