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from IV.B - Minerals
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
In 1869, J. Raulin showed for the first time that zinc is a growth factor for Aspergilus niger. Then, in 1926, it was discovered that zinc is essential for higher plants (Sommer and Lipman 1926). The importance of zinc in the growth and development of rats was demonstrated in 1934 (Todd, Elvehjem, and Hart 1934), and in 1955, H. F. Tucker and W.D. Salmon related a disease in swine called parakeratosis to a deficiency of zinc. Shortly thereafter, zinc was shown to be a growth factor for chickens (O'Dell, Newberne, and Savage 1958).
The manifestations of zinc deficiency in animals include growth failure, loss of hair, thickening and hyperkeratinization of the epidermis, and testicular atrophy. Zinc deficiency in breeding hens results in decreased hatchability and gross anomalies in embryonic skeletal development.
Although the importance of zinc for animals was established 60 years ago, it has only been during the past 30 years that zinc deficiency in humans has been recognized. In 1974, the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences made a landmark decision in establishing a recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for zinc.
Discovery of Zinc Deficiency in Humans
Studies in Iran
In 1958, this author joined the staff of Dr. Hobart A. Reimann, Chief of Medicine at the Nemazee Hospital of Pahlevi University in Shiraz, Iran. In the fall of that year, Dr. James A. Halsted of the Saadi Hospital of Pahlevi University invited me to discuss a patient who had severe anemia.
The patient was a 21-year-old male, who appeared to be only a 10-year-old boy. In addition to severe growth retardation and anemia, he had hypogonadism, hepatosplenomegaly, rough and dry skin, mental lethargy, and geophagia. His intake of animal protein had been negligible. He ate only wheat flour and unleavened bread and consumed nearly 0.5 kilograms (kg) of clay daily (the habit of geophagia in the villages around Shiraz is fairly common). Ten more cases that were similar arrived at the hospital for my care within a short period of time.
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