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Bioavailability of zinc from NutriSet zinc tablets compared with aqueous zinc sulfate

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 65, pages 125–131 (2011)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background/Objectives:

The apparent widespread extent of zinc (Zn) deficiency in developing countries and the efficacy of oral Zn supplements as an adjunct to oral rehydration therapy make oral Zn supplementation an increasingly important modality in clinical medicine and public health. In this study we aimed to compare the relative bioavailability of oral doses of 30 mg of Zn in two dosing forms

Subjects/Methods:

In total, 10 healthy male volunteers ingested oral Zn doses with 200 ml plain water at about 0830 hours in the fasting state on two occasions, once as 30 mg of Zn in an aqueous solution of reagent grade zinc sulfate (ZnSO4) and another time as 1.5 NutriSet Zn tablets (Nutriset, Malaunay, France); on a third occasion, only plain water was consumed. Venous blood specimens were collected at baseline, 60, 120, 180 and 240 min after ingestion and the plasma Zn was measured for each sample.

Results:

The relative bioavailability of oral Zn from a commonly used, tableted (NutriSet) form is only about half of that of a reference dose of aqueous ZnSO4 as indicated by the area under the curve of serial plasma Zn excursion and maximal change in circulating Zn.

Conclusions:

Reduced or absent functional outcomes in Zn intervention trials may derive, in part, from a lower than anticipated intestinal uptake of the Zn in the tableted form.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dr Brenda Barahona and Mr Carlos Tanchez for their assistance with the recruiting of subjects and the conduct of the clinical absorption tests. We thank Dr Olivier Fountain of the World Health Organization for provision of the zinc tablets used in the study. We are indebted to Dr Marieke Vossenaar for her statistical and manuscript management assistance.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Studies of Sensory Impairment, Aging and Metabolism (CeSSIAM), Guatemala City, Guatemala

    N W Solomons & M-E Romero-Abal

  2. Department of Internal Medicine I, Clinical Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria

    G Weiss

  3. Helmholtz Center Munich, German Research Center for Environmental Health, Institute of Ecological Chemistry, Neuherberg, Germany

    B Michalke

  4. Center Institute for Nutrition and Food Research, Technische Universität München, Freising, Germany

    K Schűmann

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  1. N W Solomons
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Correspondence to N W Solomons.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Contributors: NWS and KS conceived and designed the study. MERA recruited the subjects, conducted the metabolic studies and collected and processed the samples. GW and BM contributed assays from their laboratories. All authors contributed to the development of the final manuscript. Funding was provided by the Hildegard Grunow Foundation of Munich, Germany. The NutriSet tablets were provided by the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland.

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Solomons, N., Romero-Abal, ME., Weiss, G. et al. Bioavailability of zinc from NutriSet zinc tablets compared with aqueous zinc sulfate. Eur J Clin Nutr 65, 125–131 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2010.198

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