Iron Ascorbate Threonine (II) as a New Chelated Form of Essential Iron for Food Fortification

Abstract

Microelements are an extremely important part of the diet of any living organism. However, in order to achieve its maximum digestibility, a man has to search for new nutrient forms. Microelements in the chelated complexes composition keep greater digestibility compared to such popular forms as inorganic and organic, therefore, the development of new chelated microelement forms is relevant. The research aimed at developing and studying a biologically active chelate complex of the essential microelement iron with ascorbic acid and the essential amino acid L-threonine (iron ascorbate threonine (II)). The thesis presents a method for obtaining the complex, its stability study, IR spectroscopy of the resulting compound and the antioxidant activity research of milk enriched with iron ascorbate threonine (II) complex. The stability study of the developed complex demonstrated that the developed complex was stable in neutral and acidic environments, unstable in an alcaline environment. The authors revealed that an increase in the mixing time and synthesis temperature led to the iron ascorbate (II) destruction; the complex formation was due to chelating iron through the carboxyl group and the α-amino group of L-threonine and hydroxyl groups attached to the C2 and C3 atoms of ascorbic acid. The final stage of the study concerns the antioxidant activity of milk enriched with a complex of the essential microelement iron with ascorbic acid and the essential amino acid L-threonine. A man found that the developed complex exhibited antioxidant activity at the level of 40 % of the trolox activity; determined that the antioxidant milk activity increased by 42.8 % relative to the control milk sample. The results obtained enables to conclude that the iron ascorbate threonine (II) complex demonstrates antioxidant activity and can be used for the functional food products development.