标题：Combined Inorganic Iron (FeSO4) and Steamed Pumpkin ( Cucurbita moschata ) Fortification in Fresh Noodles Can Increase Hemoglobin Levels in Iron Deficient Mice
摘要：Noodles are important and popular diet in and outside Asian countries and therefore it is a potential iron carrier food which can provide wide geographical acceptance and coverage. Noodles which had been fortified with inorganic or organic iron only or combined with steamed pumpkin were fed to mice to study its ability to increase Hb level. Thirty 3 weeks old Balb/c mice ( Mus musculus ) with body weight of 22.9-24.8 g were allocated randomly into five treatment groups: (1) control unfortified wet noodles (unfortified), (2) inorganic iron fortified noodles (FeSO4), (3) organic iron fortified noodles (Bioplex), (4) combined inorganic iron-steam pumpkin fortified noodles (FeSO4+P), (5) combined organic iron-steam pumpkin fortified noodles (Bioplex+P). Each group consisted of six replicate mice. Iron depletion period by feeding unfortified noodles was performed for 14 days followed by treatment noodles for 14 days. The results showed that fortified noodles could increase serum iron levels (p = 0.0001) and transferrin saturation (p = 0.0001) in all groups. However, it could increase Hb levels (p = 0.0001) only in fortified but not unfortified groups. Body weight (p = 0.965), liver weight (p = 0.086) and liver iron levels were not affected by the treatments. Our studies demonstrated that noodles which have been fortified with combined inorganic iron and steamed pumpkin can serve as food carriers to intervene iron deficiency anemia in mice.
