Trace elements found in various food stuffs, their clinical significance, deficiencies and importance in maintaining the health

Abstract

For the maintenance of normal health, our diet requires adequate protein, energy substrates, vitamins and various inorganic salts and trace elements. None of the trace elements is required more than a milligram per day whereas the daily requirement for some is measurable in microgram. The WHO expert committee on trace elements in human nutrition (1973) has recognized 14 trace elements as essential for animal life: iron, iodine, fluorine, zinc, copper, cobalt, chromium, manganese, molybdenum, colenium, nickel, tin, silicon and vanadium.