Vitamins & Minerals

Rice is relatively a better source of vitamins, minerals, protein and starch among cereals. In order to identify nutraceutically enriched HYV rice, a total of 35 BRRI released HYVs were subjected to analyze water soluble vitamins such thiamin and riboflavin along with physicochemical and cooking properties. In addition, some profound vitamin enriched HYVs were further subjected to analyze for mineral content such as zinc, iron, phytic acid (PA) and molar ratio of PA to minerals and these were evaluated over variation of degree of milling (DOM) and polishing time (Seconds). Our data reveals that BRRI dhan36 has the highest thiamin content (mg100^-1g) of 1.15 followed by BRRI dhan29 (1.14), BRRI dhan48 (1.12), BRRI dhan28 (1.09) and BRRI dhan43 (1.08), BR16 (1.09), BR25 (0.93), BRRI dhan38 (0.93), BRRI dhan64 (0.89) and BRRI dhan42 (0.85) among all tested 35 BRRI HYVs in Bangladesh. Both BRRI dhan43 and BRRI dhan42 have higher Zn content (ppm) of 27.17 and 27.12 among all tested BRRI HYVs rice varieties at 10% DOM. In addition, we have also observed that grain size and shape have significant impact on degree of milling (DOM) and mineral content trends to be decreased significantly over increasing the polishing time. Considering all nutritional values such as water-soluble vitamins specially thiamin, protein, apparent amylose content, cooking time, elongation ratio, imbibition’s ratio, mineral contents such as Zn, Fe, PA and molar ratio of PA to minerals into account, BRRI dhan43 followed by BRRI dhan42 found suitable to treat as nutriceutically enriched HYV rice in Bangladesh among all tested HYVs. Consuming both BRRI dhan43 and BRRI dhan42 as nutraceutically enriched rice alternately, might impact on nutritionally challenged vulnerable portion of Bangladeshi population specially women and children under five years of age.

Objectives: Prevalence of subclinical vitamin B12 deficiency is high during early pregnancy especially among Indian women. Early pregnancy is also associated with modulations in autonomic nervous activity to adapt to haemodynamic changes. Current study aimed to compare the autonomic nervous activity through heart rate variability (HRV) indices during early pregnancy in women with low and high vitamin B12 status.
Methods: Forty-two healthy pregnant Indian women in their early pregnancy (<14 weeks) were evaluated. Blood samples were analysed for plasma vitamin B12, haemogram and ECG. ECG was subjected to heart rate variability analysis. Subjects were divided into four groups based on quartile values of vitamin B12 levels.
Results: There was a significant difference in Log LF (low frequency) HRV between the study groups (p=0.03). Log LF HRV was lower in lowest vitamin B12 group (Quartile 1 of Vitamin B12 levels <151.7 pmol/l) compared to group with highest vitamin B12 levels (Quartile 4 of Vitamin B12 levels >248.7 pmol/L) (p=0.05). There was a significant positive correlation between plasma vitamin B12 levels and Log LF (r=0.36, p=0.02).
Conclusion: This study showed reduced sympathetic activity among subjects with low vitamin B12 status compared to subjects with high vitamin B12 status. Thus, emphasising the use of vitamin B12 levels during routine clinical evaluation and utility of simple measures like HRV as a screening tool during pregnancy along with postural blood pressure evaluation to rule out orthostatic intolerance. Further, longitudinal studies are required to evaluate vitamin B12 status and its long-term impact on autonomic nervous system during pregnancy.