†Background Plants require at least 14 mineral elements for their nutrition. These include the macronutrients nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg) and sulphur (S) and the micronutrients chlorine (Cl), boron (B), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), nickel (Ni) and molybdenum (Mo). These are generally obtained from the soil. Crop production is o...

Inorganic elements (metals, non-metals, transition elements, and electrolytes commonly called “minerals” in nutrition science) are critical to all life processes as enzyme cofactors, stabilizers of proteins, structural components of tissues, second messengers, regulators of acid-base balance, participants in redox reactions, and for the maintenance of cellular electrical potential. For this rea...

On average, mineral elements account for 4 % of total body mass and part of every tissue, liquid, cell and organ in human body. There is a sufficient evidence that minerals, both independently or in proper balance with other minerals, have structural, biochemical and nutritional functions that are very important for overall human health, both mental and physical (Vahčić et al., 2010). Furthermo...

Generally, only a fraction of the mineral ingested by an animal is effectively absorbed, while most are bound to other components such as fibre and then excreted. In this study, faecal mineral composition differentials were used as indicators of mineral uptake by pullets supplemented varying levels of plantain ash in their daily rations for nine weeks. Plantain stalk and root base samples were ...

It is unusual to have a preface to a named lecture, but then it is an unusually great compliment to be invited by this Society to give a second lecture named after a distinguished biochemist. The first, the Keilin lecture, I gave on my version of how electronic events in bioenergetic chains, one of Keilin's great interests [ I ] , were linked through energy transduction to proton gradients and ...

Crop production is often restricted by the availability of essential mineral elements. For example, the availability of N, P, K, and S limits low-input agriculture, the phytoavailability of Fe, Zn, and Cu limits crop production on alkaline and calcareous soils, and P, Mo, Mg, Ca, and K deficiencies, together with proton, Al and Mn toxicities, limit crop production on acid soils. Since essential...

Mineral elements are essential nutrients for humans and play important roles in many human physiological and bio-chemical processes. In this study, a comparison between the levels of mineral elements present in the water of public drinking fountains (PDRF) and in bottled water was carried out. The aim of the study is to assess the effectiveness of PDRF as a mineral supplement, compared to the l...