Minerals are inorganic elements that have physiological functions in the body. They must be obtained through diet and vary in daily requirements from grams for macro minerals to micrograms for trace elements. Minerals are classified as macroelements, microelements, or ultratrace elements based on their quantities in the human body and daily intake requirements. The major macroelements are calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, sodium, potassium, sulfur, and chlorine, while important microelements include iron, copper, iodine, and zinc. Ultratrace elements have estimated daily requirements of less than 1 mg and may include aluminum, arsenic, chromium, and fluoride.

1. MINERALS
• Minerals are inorganic elements that have a
physiological function within the body.
• These must be supplied in the diet (food and
fluids) and
• They vary from grams per day for the major
(macro) minerals through milligrams to
micrograms per day for the trace elements.
• Their functions are many and varied.

2. MINERALS
• More stringent criteria proposed to establish
essentiality of a mineral include the following
conditions:
– It is present in all healthy tissue of living things.
– Its concentration from one animal to the next is
fairly constant.
– Withdrawing it from the body induces
reproducibly the same physiological and structural
abnormalities.

3. MINERALS
–Adding it either reduces or prevents these
abnormalities.
–The abnormalities induced by deficiencies
are always accompanied by specific
biochemical changes.
–These biochemical changes can be
prevented or cured when the deficiency is
prevented or cured.

4. MINERALS
• All elements have the potential to cause toxic
symptoms, whereas some, the known essential
elements have the potential to cause deficiency
symptoms.
• Even so, deficiencies of only four of these inorganic
elements are known to be prevalent in human
populations.
• Two of these deficiencies, iodine and iron, are
widespread in human populations whereas the other
two, zinc and selenium, only occur in some population
groups under specially defined conditions.

5. Classification
• Minerals are classified into three groups:
–Macroelements or Bulk elements
–Microelements or Trace elements and
–Ultratrace elements

6. Macroelements
• Macrominerals, also called major minerals or
macronutrient elements occur in a minimum
quantity of 5 g in a 60 kg human body.
• Macrominerals are those elements that are
required in amounts >100 mg/day.
• The major minerals of the human body
traditionally include calcium, phosphorus,
magnesium, sodium, potassium, sulfur and
chlorine.

7. • The body’s content of the macrominerals
ranges from ~35 to 1,400 g, and that of the
trace elements ranges from <1 mg to ~4 g.

8. Microelements
• Microminerals (or trace minerals or trace
elements) initially gained the description “trace”
because their concentrations in tissue were not
easily quantified by early analytical methods.
• Alternately, trace may be applied to minerals
needed by the body in amounts <100 mg per day.
• The important microelements essential for normal
body functions are iron, copper, iodine, zinc,
cobalt, selenium etc.

9. Ultratrace Elements
• Ultratrace elements have been defined as
those elements with estimated, established,
or suspected requirements of <1 mg/day.
• Based on this definition, as many as 19
elements may be classified as ultratrace
elements, such as aluminum, arsenic,
chromium, fluoride, nickel, selenium, silicon.

10. Ultratrace Elements
• The ultratrace elements- arsenic, boron,
nickel, silicon, and vanadium- at present, not
considered essential, although for each, some
evidence suggests a possible need.