Background: Phytate, a potent inhibitor of calcium, iron, and zinc absorption, may hamper the bioavailability of these micronutrients at the time of pregnancy. This study assessed dietary phytate intake and its inhibitory effect on the bioavailability of calcium, iron, and zinc from the diets of pregnant women in rural Bangladesh. The study also explored significant determinants that predicted the absorption of these minerals from the diet. Methods: A multiple pass recall (MPR) approach was used for this study, with in-depth probing interview covering 24-h dietary recall conducted among 717 pregnant women who were in either their second or third trimester. Results: The mean daily phytate, calcium, iron and zinc intake of the pregnant women were found to be 695.1, 192.2, 5.1, and 5.7 mg respectively. The mean molar ratios of phytate to calcium, iron, zinc and (phytate x calcium)/zinc were 0.27, 12.8, 11.2, and 54.8 respectively. All the molar ratios were found to be significantly higher in a group with the highest phytate intake compared to other intake groups. Phytate inhibited iron absorption from the diet of all the pregnant women sampled, and inhibited calcium absorption among 52 % of the women while inhibition of zinc absorption was not found in a notable number (12 %) of the pregnant women. When using multivariate models, phytate intake, inadequate micronutrient intake, gestational age, and energy intake significantly predicted the variance in phytate to mineral molar ratios. The predicting models calculated about 92 %, 88 %, and 89 % variance in phytate to calcium, iron, and zinc molar ratios respectively. Phytate to calcium, iron, and zinc molar ratios would be expected to be respectively 0.05, 2.48, and 1.96 points higher for every 100 mg increment in daily phytate intake. Conclusions: Phytate intake was found to inhibit the bioavailability of iron and calcium from the diets of pregnant women. Moreover, phytate was one of the strongest inhibitory predictors of calcium, iron and zinc bioavailability.

Peripheral serum samples were collected from 8 pregnant dromedary camels and hormone secretion patterns were examined at specific time intervals. Mean serum progesterone concentrations began to rise 3-4 days after ovulation and remained reasonably constant at 3-5 ng mL-1 for the first 90-100 days of gestation. Concentrations then showed a definite fall, but thereafter remained constant again at 2-4 ng mL-1 throughout the rest of pregnancy. In contrast, serum oestrogen concentrations showed pronounced fluctuations during the first 100 days of gestation. Mean oestradiol-17 beta concentrations increased at around Day 50 to about 100 pg mL-1 and then remained relatively constant from Day 90 to Day 300. Mean oestrone sulfate concentrations, however, showed two definite peaks in early gestation, each reaching about 10 ng mL-1, with the first peak occurring around Day 25 and the second peak around Day 75. Oestrogen production then remained fairly constant until around Day 300, after which concentrations of both oestrone sulfate and free oestradiol-17 beta rose steeply over the next 80 days to reach mean peak values of 46 ng ML-1 and 518.7 pg mL-1, respectively, at the time of parturition. Concentrations of 13,14 dihydro-15-keto prostaglandin F2 alpha (PGFM) remained low and reasonably steady at 100-200 pg mL-1 during the first 320 days of pregnancy; thereafter, PGFM concentrations rose steeply over the next 50 days, before an explosive further increase to a peak of 1900 +/- 141 pg mL-1 mean +/- sem on the day of calving. These results suggest that, as in the cow, a major change in steroid synthetic capability and/or enzyme content of the placenta may occur at around 80% (Day 300) of gestation in the pregnant camel.

This study was carried out to assess the fishery resources of the Sibuti River estuary, Sarawak, Malaysia. Data were collected from the study area for a period of one year in different seasons. The estuary is relatively species-rich and a total of 4675 individuals of 32 families from 60 species of fish (55), crab (four) and shrimp (one) were collected. Coilia dussumieri was the dominant species (22.63%) followed by Nemapteryx caelata (11.85%), Otolithes ruber (7.85%) and Ilisha elongata (5.80%). Marked seasonal variations were found among most of the hydrobiological factors; however, seasonal variations were not significant for the diversity indices such as Shannon-Wiener, Margalef and Evenness. The number of fish taxa caught in different mesh size gill nets was 1 inch (42 species) > 2 inch (36 species) > 4 inch (25 species), suggesting that smaller mesh nets are more suitable for assessing the diversity of fishery resources. SIMPER analysis showed that Coilia dussumieri was the most abundant species in the dry (10.3%) and intermediate (8.1%) seasons, whereas N. caelata was most abundant in the wet season (7.1%). Significant differences (ANOSIM and nMDS) were observed in the species community structure between dry-intermediate and dry-wet seasons; however, species compositions were not significantly different between intermediate and wet seasons. Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) showed that most of the species assemblages were positively correlated with turbidity and chlorophyll a, followed by phosphate, nitrate and zooplankton density. The findings suggest that the Sibuti mangrove estuary is productive in terms of diversified fishery resources, which are influenced by the hydrobiological factors.

No abstract

No abstract