Written By: Nirmalya Dutta | Updated : March 12, 2014 3:20 PM IST
A recent study published in the Journal of Nutrition showed that pearl millet with higher iron content is better for young children to fulfil their daily iron needs. Pearl millet of course is an important staple in semi-arid regions like India and Africa. In India, about 45-50 million people in the states of Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh among others rely upon pearl millet as a major source of their dietary energy. Its tolerance to drought, heat and soil salinity and its high water use efficiency makes it a climate-smart crop. In addition, given its high protein and mineral content (especially iron and zinc), high dietary fibre, gluten-free protein, the area under pearl millet cultivation is expected to increase in the future, including its adoption in non-traditional growing environments. (Read: How much of each nutrient should you consume for a healthy life?)
Called bajra in Hindi, it's often a cereal that has been that has been frowned upon by the richer sections of society which considered it a food for the poor. However, in recent years, dieticians and nutritionists have been urging people to include bajra in their diet because of its high nutritional value. It's high in proteins with a good amount of amino acids, a great source of iron which helps the formation of haemoglobin in blood and prevents anaemia and also contains vitamin B1. (Read: Tasty bajra paratha recipe)
Severe anaemia, often caused by iron deficiency, increases the risk of women dying in childbirth. These new varieties of pearl millet are being conventionally bred to provide more dietary iron to rural farming communities in arid drought-prone regions where few other crops thrive.
In the study, iron-deficient Indian children under the age of three who ate traditionally-prepared porridges (sheera, uppama) and flat bread (roti) made from iron-rich pearl millet flour absorbed substantially more iron than from ordinary pearl millet flour, enough to meet their physiological requirements. As an added bonus, this iron-rich pearl millet also contained more zinc, which was similarly absorbed in sufficient amounts meet the children's full daily zinc needs. Lack of zinc in children can lead to stunting and impaired immune response against common infections.
According to Dr Michael Hambidge, Paediatrics Professor Emeritus at the University of Colorado in Denver, who led the research team, the findings represent a promising development for public health. 'In the areas where pearl millet is the main food staple, this study offers a serious, potentially important, strategy to battle malnutrition,' he says.
The principal investigator on the India research team, Dr Bhalchandra Kodkany of Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, an expert on maternal and child health and a practicing Obstetrician and Gynaecologist, says that most of the pregnant women who go to his clinic have very low levels of iron in their blood. 'We often see cases of severe anaemia in women and school children in India because they mostly eat wheat and rice based foods which are very deficient in iron,' he notes. 'So, these results are very welcome news for India.'
In another study, also just published in the Journal of Nutrition, marginally iron-deficient Beninese women who ate a traditionally prepared iron-rich pearl millet paste were found to absorb twice the amount of iron than paste made from ordinary pearl millet with lower iron content. The results indicate that less than 160 grams of iron-rich pearl millet flour daily is enough to provide Beninese women aged 18-45 with more than 70 percent of their daily iron needs. The equivalent amount of the ordinary pearl millet used in the study provided only 20 percent of their iron needs. Women, generally, have higher iron needs than children.
The research team in Benin was led by Dr Richard Hurrell, who is a member of the Task Force on Food Fortification as well as the International Micronutrient Advisory Group at the World Health Organization. Dr. Hurrell is optimistic about the significance of the studies: 'I do think that the evidence that has been generated for high-iron pearl millet is exciting, and is enough to support biofortification in general as a major strategy to combat micronutrient malnutrition. We now need to make further progress with the other major cereal grains and beans.'
Nutritionists have welcomed these new findings. 'Globally, women and children are the two groups who suffer the most from mineral deficiencies,' explains Dr Erick Boy, head of Nutrition at HarvestPlus, a global program to improve nutrition. 'Until now, we believed that cereal grains could not supply enough iron or zinc to meet the nutritional needs of these vulnerable groups. These findings, from two different parts of the world, have established that iron-rich pearl millet can be an excellent source of iron and even zinc, much more so than wheat and rice'
Iron-rich pearl millet is being developed using conventional breeding by the International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) as part of the HarvestPlus program. The first iron-rich pearl millet variety (ICTP-8203Fe) was commercialized in 2012 in Maharashtra, India. It also provides more zinc, is high yielding and is disease and drought tolerant. Results from this study indicate that children could get their full daily iron needs from just 100 grams of this pearl millet flour. Children aged under two, who might eat less, would still benefit substantially from eating iron-rich pearl millet.
More than 30,000 Indian farmers have purchased and planted this new variety marketed as Dhanshakti (meaning prosperity and strength). Scientists are now developing more iron-rich pearl millet varieties that will have even higher levels of iron to be released in India.
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