SURVEY OF IRON CONTENT IN SOME VEGETARIAN DIETARY SOURCES

The deficiency of iron, an essential micro mineral, in the human body, is very common, especially for the vegetarians. Vegetarians are more susceptible to the deficiency of iron because they consume non-heme iron therefore they need to use a large amount of food rich in iron. In the present study some vegetarian food samples, acquired from local (Oradea Romania) sources, belonging to different food categories (vegetable, seeds, cereals, beans and fruits) were analysed. The iron content was determined using the thiocyanate spectrophotometry technique. The results showed that from the analysed food the sesame seeds and chickpeas beans had the maximum contribution towards the dietary iron content followed by parsley leaves and oat. The analysed fruits had the minimum iron content