Abstract
At the Boron97 International Symposium, I presented an historical account of boron in food and nutrition, and reviewed findings indicating that boron is nutritionally important for animals and humans (Nielsen, 1997). Those findings came mainly from the Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center in North Dakota, USA, and showed that physiological amounts of boron can affect the metabolism or utilization of numerous other substances involved in life processes including macrominerals, energy substrates such as triglycerides and glucose, nitrogen-containing substances such as amino acids and proteins, reactive oxygen species, and estrogen. Through these effects, boron can affect several body systems, including the brain, skeleton and immune system, generally in a beneficial fashion. The review also presented evidence that resulted in the hypothesis that boron has an essential role in cell membrane function or stability such that it influences the response to hormone action, transmembrane signaling, or transmembrane movement of regulatory cations or anions. Since that symposium, the number of research findings, now from several research groups, supporting the contention that boron is of nutritional and pharmacological importance have increased markedly.
The US Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Northern Plains Area, is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and all agency services are available without discrimination.
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Nielsen, F.H. (2002). The Nutritional Importance and Pharmacological Potential of Boron for Higher Animals and Human. In: Goldbach, H.E., Brown, P.H., Rerkasem, B., Thellier, M., Wimmer, M.A., Bell, R.W. (eds) Boron in Plant and Animal Nutrition. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0607-2_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0607-2_4
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