essential mineral

• Essential minerals required to support human biochemical processes

  • Potassium
  • Chloride
  • Sodium
  • Calcium
  • Phosphorus
  • Magnesium
  • Zinc
  • Iron
  • Manganese
  • Copper
  • Iodine
  • Selenium
  • Molybdenum
• Dietary minerals


  Do not include the fundamental elements of organic chemistry: hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen
• Most of the essential minerals are of relatively low atomic weight
• Information provided for each essential mineral

  • Mineral
  • RDA/AI
  • Description
  • Category
  • Insufficiency
  • Excess
• Potassium


  • Systemic electrolyte, essential in coregulating ATP with sodium, dietary sources include legumes, potato skin, tomatoes, and bananas
• Chloride


  • Needed for production of hydrochloric acid in the stomach and in cellular pump functions, main dietary source is table salt
• Sodium


  • Systemic electrolyte, essential in coregulating ATP with potassium, dietary sources include table salt, sea vegetables, milk, and spinach
• Calcium


  • Needed for muscle, heart and digestive system health, builds bone, supports synthesis and function of blood cells, dietary sources include dairy products, canned fish with bones, green leafy vegetables, nuts and seeds
• Phosphorus


  • Component of bones and energy processing, usually seen as phosphate in biological contexts
• Magnesium


  • Required for processing ATP and for bones, dietary sources include nuts, soy beans, and cocoa
• Zinc


  • Pervasive and required for several enzymes
• Iron


  • Required for many proteins and enzymes, notably hemoglobin, dietary sources include red meat, leafy green vegetables, fish, eggs, dried fruits, beans, whole grains, and enriched grains
• Manganese


  • A cofactor in enzyme functions
• Copper


  • Required component of many redox enzymes, including cytochrome c oxidase
• Iodine


  • Required for the biosynthesis of thyroxine
• Selenium


  • A cofactor essential to activity of antioxidant enzymes like glutathione peroxidase
• Molybdenum


  • The oxidases xanthine oxidase, aldehyde oxidase, and sulfite oxidase
• Sulfur is required in relatively large quantities but there is no RDA as it is obtained from and used for amino acids
• Cobalt is required in the synthesis of vitamin B12, but is usually considered part of vitamin B12 deficiency rather than its own mineral deficiency
• There have been occasional studies asserting the essentiality of nickel, but it currently has no known RDA
• Chromium is sometimes described as essential, it is implicated in sugar metabolism in humans, but definitive biochemical evidence for a physiological function is lacking
• Fluoride has been described as conditionally essential, depending upon the importance placed upon the prevention of chronic disease
• Arsenic, boron, bromine, cadmium, silicon, tungsten, and vanadium have established, albeit specialized, biochemical roles as structural or functional cofactors in other organisms, but appear not to be utilized by humans
• Antiseptics


  Antimicrobial substances applied to living tissue/skin to reduce the possibility of infection, sepsis, or putrefaction
• Antibiotics


  Antiseptics that have the ability to be transported by the body through the lymphatic system to destroy bacteria within the body
• Disinfectants


  Destroy microorganisms found on non-living objects
• Bacteriocidal


  True germicides, capable of destroying microbes
• Bacteriostatic


  Only prevent or inhibit the growth of microbes
• Antibacterials


  Antiseptics that have the proven ability to act against bacteria especially if they target systems which kill only bacteria
• Microbicides


  Kill virus particles, also called viricides or antivirals
• Conditions required for bacterial growth

  1. Food supply

  2. Moisture

  3. Oxygen

  4. Minimum temperature
• Standardization of antiseptics has been implemented, with a water solution of phenol of a certain fixed strength used as the standard to which other antiseptics are compared
• Common antiseptics


  • Alcohols (ethanol, 1-propanol, 2-propanol/isopropanol)
  • Quaternary ammonium compounds (benzalkonium chloride, cetyl trimethylammonium bromide, cetylpyridinium chloride, benzethonium chloride)
  • Boric acid
  • Hydrogen peroxide
  • Iodine
• Alcohols


  • Most commonly used are ethanol (60-90%), 1-propanol (60-70%) and 2-propanol/isopropanol (70-80%) or mixtures, used to disinfect skin before injections, often along with iodine or cationic surfactants
• Quaternary ammonium compounds


  • Also known as Quats or QACs, include benzalkonium chloride, cetyl trimethylammonium bromide, cetylpyridinium chloride, and benzethonium chloride, used in some pre-operative skin disinfectants, antimicrobial activity inactivated by anionic surfactants
• Boric acid


  • Used in suppositories to treat yeast infections, eyewashes, and as an antiviral, put into creams for burns, though only a soothing fluid and does not actually kill bacteria
• Hydrogen peroxide


  • Used as a 6% (20Vols) solution to clean and deodorize wounds and ulcers, less potent 1% or 2% solutions no longer recommended for typical wound care as the strong oxidization causes scar formation and increases healing time
• Iodine


  • Usually used in an alcoholic solution (tincture of iodine) or as Lugol's iodine solution as a pre- and post-operative antiseptic, no longer recommended to disinfect minor wounds, novel iodine antiseptics containing povidone-iodine are better tolerated and leave a deposit of active iodine