Rubidium deficiency

Tab. 1.4-5 Rubidium contents (mg kg dry matter) in tissues of control and rubidium-deficiency kids at birth...

Rubidium deficiency in goats reportedly results in depressed food intake and life expectancy, and increased spontaneous abortions. If rubidium is required by humans, the requirement probably would be no more than a few hundred micrograms per day, based on animal data. Rubidium is a relatively nontoxic element and thus is not of toxicological concern from the nutritional point of view. 

Pt(II) compound reactivation, 37 201 Pt(IV) compound reduction, 37 201 rate-determining step, 37 199-201 tetrachloride, 4 187-188 tetracyanide anions, as one-dimensional electrical conductors, 26 235-268 anion-deficient structures anhydrous compounds, 26 252-254 dimerization, 26 249-251 hydrated derivatives, 26 245-252 physics, 26 260-263 with potassium bromide, 26 248-249 with rubidium chloride, 26 249-250 cation-deficient compounds, 26 244, 254-256... 

Smyth, D.A. and W.M. Dugger. 1980. Effects of boron deficiency on rubidium uptake and photosynthesis in the diatom Cylindrothecafusiformis. Plant Physiol. 66 692-695. 

By contrast, in the disk and halo of the Milky Way, some metal-poor stars that are also overabundant in rubidium relative to iron are confusingly deficient in only slightly heavier elements, such as yttrium and zirconium. This would seem to indicate that, in these particular stars, the rubidium production occurs via the r-process (see chapter 8), which is not capable of producing the heavier elements. 

Until 1950, 13 mineral elements were classified as essential these comprised the major elements (calcium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, chlorine, sulphur, magnesium) and the micro or trace elements (iron, iodine, copper, manganese, zinc and cobalt). By 1970, molybdenum, selenium, chromium and fluorine had been added to the list subsequently, arsenic, boron, lead, lithium, nickel, silicon, tin, vanadium, rubidium and aluminium have also been included, the list varying slightly according to the different authorities. Plant and animal tissues contain a further 30 mineral elements, in small quantities, for which no essential function has been found. They may be acquired from the environment, but it has been suggested that as many as 40 or more elements may have metabolic roles in mammalian tissues. Fortunately, many of these trace elements, especially those of more recent discovery, are required in such minute quantities, or are so widely distributed in foods for animals, that deficiencies are likely to be extremely rare under normal practical conditions. 

In contrast to transition-metal molecular clusters, the alkali-metal suboxides are stable only in the solid state. As described in Table 4.4, these clusters decompose at temperatures rather below the melting point of the metals. The stability of these species appears to be relatively precarious. It is very probable that the stabilization of this class of extreme electron-deficient compounds is possible only at relatively low temperature and in strong reducting media such as the alkali-metals rubidium or cesium. 

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