IRON STATUS AND GROWTH OF RATS FED DIFFERENT DIETARY IRON SOURCES

The present study was carried out to investigate the availability of i ron from spirulina, whole wheat, whole egg and standard ferrous sulpha te in terms of haemoglobin formation, serum and tissue iron levels. Ma le albino Wistar rats were first depleted of iron by giving low-iron d iet (9 ppm) and bleeding 1-2 ml blood at weekly intervals for a period of 21 days. The anaemic rats were repleted with iron sources at a lev el of 35 ppm for 21 days. Rats receiving whole egg gained significantl y (p < 0.01) higher weight than the rest of the three groups. The incr ease in haemoglobin was significantly higher with ferrous sulphate tha n with whole wheat (p < 0.05), spirulina and whole egg (p < 0.01). Fee ding of ferrous sulphate, whole egg and spirulina produced significant ly higher tissue iron levels than feeding of whole wheat. Thus, availa bility of iron from spirulina and whole egg were found to be comparabl e to that of the standard.