Nutrition, cobalt

Properties Steel-gray, shining, hard, ductile, somewhat malleable metal ferromagnetic, with permeability two-thirds that of iron has exceptional magnetic properties in alloys. D 8.9, mp 1493C, bp 3100C. Attacked by dilute hydrochloric and sulfuric acids, soluble in nitric acid. Corrodes readily in air. Hardness cast 124 Brinell, electrodeposited 300 Brinell. An important trace element in soils and necessary for animal nutrition. Cobalt has unusual coordinating properties, especially the trivalent ion. Noncombustible except as powder. 

Cobalt, Co, is a metallic element. Cobalt 59 is the only stable isotope. Common isotopes are cobalt 57, cobalt 58, and the most common, cobalt 60. Cobalt is a steel-gray, shining, hard, ductile, and somewhat malleable metal. It has magnetic properties and corrodes readily in air. Cobalt dust is flammable and toxic by inhalation, with a TLV of 0.05 mg/m of air. It is an important trace element in soils and animal nutrition. Cobalt 57 is radioactive. It has a half-life of 267 days. It is a radioactive poison and is used in biological research. Cobalt 58 is also radioactive and has a half-life of 72 days. It is a radioactive poison, and it is used in biological and medical research. Cobalt 60 is one of the most common radioisotopes. It has a half-life of... 

Soils should contain 0.13 to 0.30 ppm of cobalt for proper animal nutrition. 

Cobalt. Cobalt is nutritionally available only as vitamin 2 ( )- Although Co " can function as a replacement in vitro for other divalent cations, in particular Zn ", no in vivo function for inorganic cobalt is known for humans (149). In mminant animals, B22 is synthesi2ed by bacteria in the mmen. 

Isolated polynucleotide clusters from Rhodococcus opacus which encode four polypeptides possessing the activities of a NHase (a and /3 subunits), an auxiliary protein P15K that activates the NHase, and a cobalt transporter protein were expressed in Escherichia coli DSM 14459 cells [34]. Methionine nitrile was added continuously to a suspension of the transformant cells (5.6% w/v of wet cells) in phosphate buffer (50 mM, pH 7.5) at 20 °C, at a rate where the nitrile concentration did not exceed 15 g L 1 while maintaining the pH constant at 7.5. After 320 min, the nitrile was completely converted into amide, corresponding to a final product concentration of 176 gL1.4-Methylthio-a-hydroxybutyramide is readily hydrolyzed with calcium hydroxide, where the calcium salt of 4-methylthio-a-hydroxybutyric acid (MHA) can be directly used as a nutritional supplement in animal feed as an alternative to methionine or MHA. 

The need to include a variety of minerals in experimental diets has already been mentioned this was especially stressed (1920-1930) by Boyd-Orr, the director of the Rowett Institute for Animal Nutrition in Scotland. Increasingly refined food sources led to the identification of large numbers of trace elements (e.g., Cu, Mn, Mo, Zn) whose importance in the diet was suggested from hydroponic experiments with plant seedlings. Cobalt is an example of such a trace element. Vitamin Bj2 is synthesized by bacteria in the rumens of sheep and cattle but is absent from their fodder. In Australia, sheep feeding on cobalt-deficient pastures failed to thrive because vitamin B12 could no longer be made. 

Friedman, M. and Pearce, K.N. (1989). Copper(II) and cobalt(II) affinities of ll- and LD-lysinoalanine diastereomers Implications for food safety and nutrition, J. Agric. Food Chem., 31, 123-127. 

Metals are extremely important not only for chemical reactions but also for the health and welfare of plants and animals. Some examples of metals required for good nutrition, even in trace amounts, are iron, copper, cobalt, potassium, sodium, and zinc. Other metals—for example, mercury, lead, cadmium, barium, beryllium, radium, and uranium—are very toxic. Some metals at the atomic and ionic levels are crucial for the oxidation process that metabolizes carbohydrates for all living cells. 

Cobalt is an important trace element for proper human nutrition. It is also a natural component of vitamin... 

The compound occurs in nature as the mineral cobalt spar or sphaero-cobaltite. It is used in ceramics in cobalt pigments as a catalyst as a temperature indicator and in the preparation of other cobalt(II) salts. It also is added to soil to provide nutritional supplement in forage for cattle. 

Cobalt in Nutrition. Johan Georg Forchhammer found in his great research on the composition of sea water that marine organisms concentrate the substances necessary for their existence and thus provide the chemist with a delicate indirect means of detecting certain elements which occur in sea water in very minute amounts. He discovered cobalt, for example, in the ashes of Zostera marina and in the fossil sponges of the chalk (123). 

M. O. Schultze stated that cobalt is an essential element for the nutrition of sheep and cattle. Although it is not essential for the growth of the herbage plants, they nevertheless take it up from the soil and make it available for animal nutrition (106) To prevent anemia, even when the diet contains adequate amounts of iron, a small amount of cobalt (not more than four micrograms per day per kilogram of body weight of sheep) is required (124). It is an important constituent of vitamin B 2. 

Sewage wastes contain as much as 4 ppm of vitamin Bi2 (Hoover et al. 1952B Miner and Wolnak 1953). Although frowned on for aesthetic reasons as a source of vitamin Bi2 for human nutrition, wastes from activated sludge processes may well provide the cheapest source for preparation of vitamin Bi2 concentrates used in cattle feed. Symbiotic growth of lactic and acetic acid bacteria has been recommended for producing sour milk products biologically enriched with vitamin Bi2 (Rykshina 1961). Acetic acid bacteria cultured in whey fortified with cobalt salts led to an 80-fold increase in vitamin B12. Propionic acid bacteria in skim milk supplemented with dimethylbenzimidazole increased the vitamin content by 300-fold. 

The human body contains only about 1.5 mg of cobalt, almost all of it is in the form of cobalamin, vitamin B12. Ruminant animals, such as cattle and sheep, have a relatively high nutritional need for cobalt and in regions with a low soil cobalt content, such as Australia, cobalt deficiency in these animals is a serious problem. This need for cobalt largely reflects the high requirement of the microorganisms of the rumen (paunch) for vitamin B12. All bacteria require vitamin B12 but not all are able to synthesize it. For example, E. coli lacks one enzyme in the biosynthetic... 

TRACE ELEMENT (Mlcronutrient). An element essential to plant and animal nutrition in trace concentration, i.e., minute fractions of 1% (1000 ppm or less). Plants requite iron, copper, boron, zinc, manganese, potassium, molybdenum, sodium, and chlorine. Animals require iron, copper, manganese, cobalt, selenium, and potassium. Such elements are also called micronutrients. Do not confuse with tracer. 

Whanger PD, Weswig PH, Schmitz JA, et al. 1976. Effects of selenium, cadmium, mercury, tellurium, arsenic, silver and cobalt on white muscle disease in lambs and effect of dietary forms of arsenic. Nutrition Reports International 14 63-72. 

Manganese is a nutritionally important trace element for chicks. Dietary energy and protein sources contain very little bioavailable Mn, and these feed ingredients reduce the biopotency of inorganic Mn supplements. This adverse effect is exerted primarily in the intestine as a result of reduced Mn absorption and is mediated by the fiber and/or ash components of the feedstuffs. Gut absorption efficiencies are higher when a phytate-and fiber-free casein-dextrose diet is fed than when a corn-soybean meal diet is fed. Dietary interrelationships exist between Mn and Co and between Mn and Fe. Cobalt increases Mn absorption and may precipitate Mn toxicosis. Excess dietary Mn reduces Fe utilization, but excess Fe does not affect Mn utilization. Eimeria acervulina infection increases Mn absorption. 

B. About 20 elements are called minerals. They also play a role in human nutrition. The minerals known to be essential for good health are calcium, phosphorus, potassium, sulfur, sodium, chlorine, magnesium, iron, manganese, copper, iodine, cobalt, fluorine, and zinc. Traces of sihcon, boron, arsenic, strontium, aluminum, bromine, molybdenum, selenium, and nickel may also be required. These elements are eaten in the form of their compounds, but it does not matter much which compounds. 

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