Iron Lab Report Essay

From my background knowledge, the iron present which is elemental iron in the cornflakes is harder to absorb than either two . This is also supported by the Absorption rate gotten from the results section (table 2,: percentage mass of Fe2+ ) it is seen that the absorption rate of the Fortified cereal is 7. 33% while that of the iron tablet and the beef liver are 15. 23% and 21. 80% respectively. According to Ironrichfood. org, absorption of haeme iron from meat proteins is efficient, and it ranges from 15% to 35%, and is not significantly affected by diet. In contrast, 2% to 20% of nonhaeme iron in plant foods such as rice, maize, black beans, soybeans and wheat is absorbed. Nonhaeme iron absorption is significantly influenced by various food components. The Absorption rate of the Iron in the Iron tablet is lesser than that of the beef liver (as seen in Table. 2) because the iron content in the tablet is less absorbable by the body. This is to say that Natural source of iron are quickly absorbed than artificial source of iron by the body However taking iron supplements sometimes cause side-effects such as constipation, diarrhea or heartburn. Sometimes these supplements are over taken thereby leading to Iron toxicity which occurs on the absorption of excessive quantities of ingested iron. This severe overdose causes impaired oxidative phosphorylation and mitochondrial dysfunction, which can result in cellular death. The liver is one of the organs most affected by iron toxicity, but other organs such as the heart, kidneys, lungs, and the hematologic systems also may be impaired. Iron supplements should not be taken along side calcium supplements however taking foliate with iron supplement will provide maximum benefits. Taking supplements although they seem to have side effects are used widely in medicine to iron–deficiency anemia, and it’s also given to pregnant women in their second or third trimester (because the body uses up more than normal to sustain both mother and baby), its usually given with folic acid so to avoid Iron corrosion that occurs due to the damage cells of the duodenum not being able to absorb the iron thereby causing iron overload leading to gastro intestinal corrosion. No justifiable conclusion could be made from these experiment because the results gotten from this experiment were not totally credible as the experiment was prone to a few errors, these errors that could have occurred to bias the results include errors from reading the volume of MnO4 in the burette as the meniscus could not be seen clearly thus we had to look at the top of the liquid which introduced errors, also the air oxygen error, Misjudging the equivalence point, and failure to transfer all the prepared solution for titration. Owing to these errors, are the reasons for any deviation in the result of this experiment, however in the future modifications will be made to reduce or annul these errors, modifications such as: accurately measuring the weights, rightly judging the equivalence point, in general, care should be taken throughout the experiment to reduce possibility of errors.