Quality evaluation of iron-containing food supplements in the Palestinian market
Iron is an essential metal for many human body functions, including hemoglobin formation, brain development and function, body temperature regulation, muscle activity, and catecholamine metabolism (Lieu et al., 2001). The major role of iron in hemoglobin is to distribute oxygen to different body tissues and cells. Approximately 60%–70% of iron in the human body circulates in the blood as hemoglobin (Kohgo et al., 2008; Park, 2015). The rest are stored in the form of ferritin and hemosiderin in the liver, spleen, marrow, duodenum, skeletal muscle, and other anatomic areas (Saito, 2014).