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Bioconversion of spinach β‐carotene to vitamin A in Chinese children with normal or marginal vitamin A status
Author(s) -
Li Lei,
Wang Yin,
Yin Shian,
Grusak Michael A,
Russell Robert M,
Tang Guangwen
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.20.5.a1319-b
Subject(s) - bioconversion , spinach , vitamin , retinol , carotene , food science , vitamin c , medicine , chemistry , endocrinology , zoology , biochemistry , biology , fermentation
To investigate the vitamin A conversion value of spinach β‐carotene (β‐C) in healthy school children with normal or marginal vitamin A status, we recruited 32 school children aged 7‐9 y (7.8 ± 0.6 y) with serum retinol ≥ 30μg/dL or <30μg/dL. Subjects were given 5 gram cooked and pureed deuterated spinach containing 230μg 2 H‐β‐C (8F, 8M) or pure 2 H‐β‐C in oil capsule containing 200 μg 2 H‐β‐C (7F, 9M) at lunch and supper that contained 25% of energy from fat for 7 days. In the 7 days, a references dose of 100 μg vitamin A in oil capsule was given at the breakfast. Blood was drawn on either days 3, 8, 22 or 7, 15, 29 and was analyzed by HPLC and GC‐MS for the retinol enrichment. Our results showed that as compared to the reference vitamin A dose, the bioconversion factors of pure β‐C to retinol were 3.2 : 1 and 3.1 : 1 (by wt) for the subjects with normal or marginal vitamin A status, respectively. The conversion factors for spinach β‐C were 10.0 : 1 and 10.1 : 1 (by wt) for the subjects with normal or marginal vitamin A status, respectively. The results indicate that the spinach can provide vitamin A to children even though it is not as efficient as pure β‐C. We did not observe an effect of vitamin A status (normal vs. marginal) on the bioconversion of β‐C to vitamin A in these subjects. (funded by the NIH, USDA and the Zhejiang Academy of Medical Sciences in China)