Biofortification for alleviating iron deficiency anemia

Abstract

Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) is a global problem, with women and children of lower strata of society bearing the brunt of its effects. Several measures to rectify this exist, of which biofortification of food crops is increasingly gaining importance as it provides a safe and palatable way to supply adequate iron. Work on this aspect involves the physiology of iron uptake, translocation, storage, and redistribution in plants. While several food crops such as rice, wheat, and maize are already popular model plants, banana, a widely consumed fruit as well as infant food, is considered as a potential fruit crop to become “micronutrient enriched." Fortification of banana is more advantageous over other plants owing to its ploidy, parthenocarpic fruit development, its reach to the masses at large, and availability throughout the year. Bioavailability studies on the absorption of iron from banana cultivars give an indication on the time frame needed to achieve the desired levels of iron content in banana fruit. The recent advances made in understanding the mechanisms of iron uptake in humans, plants, and homeostasis along with biofortification of crop plants including banana for increasing the iron content as described in this article appear to alleviate IDA in the future.