1968 Volume 95 Issue 3 Pages 243-252
Little attention has been hitherto paid to the relationship between dietary fat content and intestinal iron absorption. The present experiments were carried out to examine the influence, if any, of soybean oil on the intestinal iron absorp-tion in rats.
Female albino rats were fed on a diet consisting of polished rice powder with or without 4% vitamin mixture (basic diet) and another kind of diet consisting of the basal diet supplemented with soybean oil (3-12%). On the last day of 2 weeks' feeding, 59FeSO4 (10μc) was given with a gastric tube. 59Fe activity in the blood 15, 30, 45 and 60 minutes after the dosage and 59Fe uptake into the liver 120 minutes after the administration were measured with a well type scintillation counter.
Significantly higher activity of 59Fe in both the blood and the liver was found in rats fed on the diet containing soybean oil than in those on the basic diet.
The increase of iron absorption in cases of the diet containing 6% soybean oil was almost the same as that observed with the diet containing 18% casein.