March 19, 2000 -- Tomorrow's tortillas made with a new type of corn may help reduce iron deficiency anemia. That could be a boon in developing countries where corn-based foods
are a part of nearly every meal, and
in developed nations where iron deficiency is also common.

Developed by U.S. Agricultural Research Service (ARS) geneticist Victor A. Raboy at Aberdeen,
ID, the novel corn has about 66 percent less phytic acid, or phytate, than most common varieties.
Phytic acid is thought to reduce the body's ability to use certain nutrients, like iron.

Now, University of Colorado researchers are leading an investigation of the effects of the corn on
zinc absorption in a new study with Guatemalan villagers. Earlier, scientists from the Institute of
Nutrition of Central America and Panama and from the University of California's Berkeley and Davis
campuses showed, with 14 adult male volunteers, that iron absorption was about 50 percent greater
if the men ate tortillas made from flour of the low-phytic-acid corn than if they ate tortillas prepared
with normal corn flour.

Patented in 1997 and licensed to three companies, the unusual corn may also boost the health of the
environment because it reduces pollution that could otherwise occur when phosphorus in the manure
of corn-fed animals makes its way into waterways. Raboy's low-phytic-acid corn is
correspondingly high in inorganic phosphorus - the form that one-stomach animals like pigs,
chickens or farm-raised fish can readily absorb and use.