OBJECTIVE To evaluate the efficacy of a community-based dietary intervention to reduce risk of micronutrient inadequacies in high-phytate maize-based Malawian diets. DESIGN Quasi-experimental post-test design with a non-equivalent control group. SETTING Four villages in Mangochi District, Southern Malawi. PARTICIPANTS Households with children aged 3-7 years in two intervention (n = 200) a...

Phytate, the major source of phosphorus in seeds, exists as a complex with different metal ions. Alkaline phytases are known to dephosphorylate phytate complexed with calcium ions in contrast to acid phytases that act only on phytic acid. A recombinant alkaline phytase from Bacillus sp. MD2 has been purified and characterized with respect to the effect of divalent metal ions on the enzyme activ...

BACKGROUND Calcium fortification of maize has been achieved for millennia in Central America by the process of nixtamalization. Bioavailability of calcium is, however, compromised by phytate, which is present in large quantities in maize kernels and is only modestly reduced by nixtamalization. OBJECTIVE The objective was to compare the absorption of calcium from tortilla meals prepared from l...

Phytate and mineral cations are both considered as important dietary factors for inhibiting the crystallisation of calcium oxalate kidney stones in susceptible individuals. In this paper, the phytate and mineral composition of whole bran cereals (wheat, barley and oat) and legumes were determined together with their soluble and insoluble oxalate concentrations in order to investigate the effect...

An in vitro method was used to determine the availability of Zn from infant foods containing increasing amounts of phytate, and to quantify the effect of the phytate:Zn molar ratio on the availability. During the in vitro assay, digestive conditions of infants, younger and older than 4 months of age, were carefully simulated since the solubility of phytate-Zn complexes during digestion is pH de...

For the assessment of representative and longitudinal Zn nutriture in South Koreans, Zn, phytate and Ca intakes were determined using four consecutive years of food consumption data taken from Korean National Nutrition Survey Report (KNNSR) every 10 years during 1969-1998. The nutrient intake data are presented for large city and rural areas. Zn intake of South Koreans in both large city and ru...

Phosphorus is an important macronutrient, but its availability in soil is limited. Many soil microorganisms improve the bioavailability of phosphate by releasing it from various organic compounds, including phytate. To investigate the diversity of phytate-hydrolyzing bacteria in soil, we sampled soils of various ecological habitats, including forest, private homesteads, large agricultural compl...

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor Moench) is the fifth most produced cereal worldwide. However, some varieties of this cereal contain antinutritional factors, such as tannins and phytate that may form stable complexes with proteins and minerals which decreases digestibility and nutritional value. The present study sought to diminish antinutritional tannins and phytate present in sorghum grains. Three di...

Phytate [myo-inositol(1,2,3,4,5,6)hexakisphosphate] have been considered negative in food industry as it is the main storage form of phosphorus (P) in many plants but this phytate-bound P is not available to non – ruminants as they don’t have these endogenous enzyme and hence the availability and digestibility of phytate phosphorous is very low in these animals. Phytic acid has antinutrients be...