A property of iron-absorption-improving effect of asccrbic acid was investigated by administrating iron salts with the vitamin to rats and then estimating their serum-iron concentrations immediately after absorption. It was found that ascorbic acid e...
A property of iron-absorption-improving effect of asccrbic acid was investigated by administrating iron salts with the vitamin to rats and then estimating their serum-iron concentrations immediately after absorption. It was found that ascorbic acid elevated absorptions of ferrous salt as well as ferric salt when the acid and salt were fed to the rats simultaneously. The function of ascorbic acid in increasing iron absorption rate has been taken widely to be caused by reducing of ferric to ferrous ions. But the results obtained in this study strongly suggests that ascorbic acid can act as an agent other than reducing agent in improving iron absorption, while its reducing contribution involved in the absorption of iron is not clearly elucidated.