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Prediction and Demonstration of Iron Chelating Ability of Sugars

Abstract

FRUCTOSE is capable of forming a highly stable chelate complex with iron, in contrast to some other hexose sugars and disaccharides which have little or no such ability1. Recently, attention has been focused on the iron–fructose complex because of its ability to move across biological membranes2 and to enhance gastrointestinal iron absorption in man3. The structure which has been proposed for this compound is one in which iron, incorporated into a five-membered ring, is bound through the hydroxyl and carbonyl oxygen atoms to carbon atoms one and two of the fructose molecule1,4.

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References

  1. Charley, P. J., Sarkar, B., Stitt, C. F., and Saltman, P., Biochim. Biophys. Acta, 69, 313 (1963).

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  2. Stitt, C., Charley, P. J., Butt, E. M., and Saltman, P., Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. and Med., 110, 70 (1962).

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  3. Davis, P. S., and Deller, D. J., Aust. Ann. Med. (in the press).

  4. Aasa, R., Malmström, B., Saltman, P., and Vänngård, T., Biochim. Biophys. Acta, 80, 430 (1964).

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DAVIS, P., DELLER, D. Prediction and Demonstration of Iron Chelating Ability of Sugars. Nature 212, 404–405 (1966). https://doi.org/10.1038/212404a0

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