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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Boston, Massachusetts » Jean Mayer Human Nutrition Research Center On Aging » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #201755
Title: Bioconversion of spinach beta-carotene to vitamin A in Chinese children with normal or marginal vitamin A status

Author
item LI, LEI
item WANG, YIN
item YIN, SHI-AN
item Grusak, Michael
item Russell, Robert
item Tang, Guang-Wen

Submitted to: Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology Conference
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/1/2006
Publication Date: 4/1/2006
Citation: Li, L., Wang, Y., Yin, S., Grusak, M.A., Russell, R.M., Tang, G. 2006. Bioconversion of spinach beta-carotene to vitamin A in Chinese children with normal or marginal vitamin A status. Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology Conference. April 1, 2006: San Francisco, CA. Abstract no. 824.6.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: To investigate the vitamin A conversion value of spinach beta-carotene (beta -C) in healthy school children with normal or marginal vitamin A status, we recruited 32 school children aged 7-9 y (7.8 ± 0.6 y) with serum retinol '30 mug/dL or <30mug/dL. Subjects were given 5 gram cooked and pureed deuterated spinach containing 230mug 2H- beta -C (8F, 8M) or pure 2H- beta -C in oil capsule containing 200 mug 2H- beta -C (7F, 9M) at lunch and supper that contained 25% of energy from fat for 7 days. In the 7 days, a references dose of 100 mug vitamin A in oil capsule was given at the breakfast. Blood was drawn on either days 3, 8, 22 or 7, 15, 29 and was analyzed by HPLC and GC-MS for the retinol enrichment. Our results showed that as compared to the reference vitamin A dose, the bioconversion factors of pure beta -C to retinol were 3.2 : 1 and 3.1 : 1 (by wt) for the subjects with normal or marginal vitamin A status, respectively. The conversion factors for spinach beta -C were 10.0 : 1 and 10.1 : 1 (by wt) for the subjects with normal or marginal vitamin A status, respectively. The results indicate that the spinach can provide vitamin A to children even though it is not as efficient as pure beta -C. We did not observe an effect of vitamin A status (normal vs. marginal) on the bioconversion of beta -C to vitamin A in these subjects. (funded by the NIH, USDA and the Zhejiang Academy of Medical Sciences in China)