Bioaccessibility of Cr, Cu, Fe, Mg, Mn, Mo, Se and Zn from nutritional supplements by the unified BARGE method

In this study, the Unified Bioaccessibility Research Group of Europe (BARGE) in vitro method was used to assess the bioaccessibility of Cr, Cu, Fe, Mg, Mn, Mo, Se, and Zn in ten nutritional supplement samples and three certified reference materials. The total digest, gastric phase and gastro-intestinal phase concentrations of Cu, Fe, Mg, Mn and Zn were determined by ICP-OES and Cr, Mo and Se by ICP-MS. The bioaccessible fractions of the elements in the gastric phase for the nutritional supplements were in the range 13-89% for Cr, 9-79% for Cu, 55-99% for Fe, 33-95% for Mg, 83-94% for Mn, 42-101% for Mo, 74-125% for Se and 81-104% for Zn. The range for the gastrointestinal phase was 6-65% for Cr, 27-66% for Cu, 3-14% for Fe, 34-91% for Mg, 53-62% for Mn, 40-109% for Mo, 53-146% for Se and 3-35% for Zn.