pubmed-article:405035 | pubmed:abstractText | 1. The retention of ferric- and ferrous-iron was determined in guinea-pigs and monkeys using 55Fe and 59Fe. 2. The bioavailability of Fe from two typical Indian diets based on rice and wheat was determined in humans and monkeys using a 59Fe tracer and whole-body counting. 3. The retention ratio, ferric-Fe; ferrous-Fe was 0-90 in guinea-pigs and 0-33 in monkeys, indicating that monkeys absorb ferrous-Fe preferentially. 4. In monkeys retention of Fe from the test diets, as from ferrous ascorbate was lower than that in humans. 5. When food-Fe retention was expressed in relation to inorganic-Fe retention the value for retention ratio, food Fe: inorganic Fe in monkeys was similar to that in human subjects. 6. The results indicate that the monkey can be used as a model to study Fe absorption from human diets. | lld:pubmed |