Iron
Compiled from published pharmacological and botanical literature. Not independently verified by Herbuno. Spotted an error or have a correction? Flag it below →
| Compound Class | Essential trace mineral; transition metal, non-heme form in plant material |
| Botanical Source | Curry leaf (Murraya koenigii) — Kadi Patta; iron is native to the leaf matrix |
| Plant Part | Leaf |
| Standardisation | 3.6% elemental iron by ICP-MS or flame AAS |
| Comparator Forms | Ferrous sulphate, fumarate, gluconate, bisglycinate; ferric pyrophosphate; carbonyl iron |
| Solubility / Format | Fine powder; matrix-bound non-heme iron; suited to tablets, capsules and powder blends |
| Regulatory Note | Established NRV and authorised EU health claims; claims attach to elemental iron content, not to source |
| Buy from Herbuno | Curry Leaf 3.6% |
| Origin | Processed / Sourced from India |
| MOQ | R&D 100 g / 250 g (subject to stock) · Pilot batch 1–5 kg · Bulk 10 kg, 25 kg and above |
| Lead Time | Dispatch within 72 hrs from stock · fresh-batch production (typically 50 kg+): 10 working days |
| Documentation | CoA & MSDS standard with every lot; phytosanitary on request |
Name origin: Iron's chemical symbol Fe comes from the Latin ferrum; the English word descends from Proto-Germanic isarnan. Its nutritional significance was recognised remarkably early — iron filings in wine were prescribed for what we would now call anaemia in classical antiquity, and the practice of quenching hot iron in water to make a tonic persisted across several traditions. This makes iron one of the very few micronutrients with a genuine pre-scientific therapeutic record for its actual deficiency.
Traditional use: Curry leaf, the source material here, carries a substantial independent record in Indian ethnomedicine and cuisine. Murraya koenigii leaves appear throughout Ayurvedic practice and are a daily culinary staple across South India, valued as a digestive and, notably, in traditional anaemia management — a use that aligns unusually well with the leaf's measured mineral content. That alignment should still be stated carefully: traditional use of the whole leaf as food is not the same claim as a standardised iron concentrate.
Research trajectory: Iron research has been dominated for fifty years by a single practical question — why plant-based diets deliver so much less usable iron than their total iron content suggests. That produced the modern distinction between heme and non-heme iron, the quantification of phytate and polyphenol inhibition, and the recognition of ascorbic acid as the principal dietary enhancer. More recently hepcidin has emerged as the master regulator of absorption, explaining why iron uptake responds to body stores and inflammation rather than to intake alone.
Commercial source: Supplemental iron is overwhelmingly delivered as inorganic or organic salts — ferrous sulphate remains the reference material on cost and elemental content. Botanically sourced iron is a distinct, much smaller category in which the mineral is concentrated within its native plant matrix. It is a clean-label and tolerability proposition rather than a potency proposition, and specifying it on any other basis overstates what the material can do.
Evidence for Iron Applications
Iron's essentiality is not in dispute: it is the functional centre of haemoglobin and myoglobin, of the cytochromes, and of numerous iron-sulphur cluster enzymes, and its deficiency remains the most prevalent nutritional deficiency worldwide. What is genuinely contested, and commercially decisive, is how much of any given iron source is actually absorbed. Claim strength: High.
Non-heme iron absorption is dominated by dietary inhibitors, and phytate is the most powerful of them. In a radioisotope study in humans using wheat rolls with sodium phytate added at seven dose levels, inhibition tracked the phytate dose closely: 2 mg of phytate phosphorus reduced iron absorption by 18%, 25 mg by 64%, and 250 mg by 82%. [Hallberg 1989] Polyphenols act similarly and independently — which matters directly here, because curry leaf is a polyphenol-containing botanical material. Any plant-matrix iron carries its own potential inhibitors alongside the mineral, and treating that as an incidental detail would be misleading. Claim strength: High.
Ascorbic acid is the principal counterweight, and it works: the same body of work established that adding ascorbic acid significantly counteracts phytate inhibition, with roughly 50 mg per main meal indicated for optimal effect. [Hallberg 1989] [Hallberg 1986] This is a formulation lever rather than a raw-material property — co-formulating a botanical iron with a vitamin C source is a rational design decision with direct mechanistic support. Claim strength: High.
The honest qualification, and one most supplier material omits, is that these effects are far larger in single-meal studies than in real diets. Work assessing ascorbic acid's effect on non-heme iron absorption from a complete diet rather than from isolated test meals found the facilitating effect far less pronounced, and the authors noted this may explain why prolonged vitamin C supplementation has not shown significant effects on iron status in several prior studies. [Cook 2001] Single-meal isotope data are the right tool for ranking inhibitors and enhancers, and the wrong tool for predicting the size of the effect in a habitual diet. Claim strength: Moderate.
On the question buyers actually ask — whether botanical iron is better tolerated or better absorbed than ferrous sulphate — there is no adequately powered head-to-head human trial comparing a curry-leaf iron concentrate against a conventional iron salt, and we will not assert one. Gastrointestinal intolerance of ferrous salts is well documented and is a genuine commercial driver, and lower elemental doses in a food matrix are plausibly gentler, but plausibility is not evidence. The defensible positioning is clean label, food-matrix delivery and label transparency. Claim strength: Emerging.
Sourcing iron from curry leaf: A 3.6% elemental iron concentrate from Murraya koenigii leaf is available from Herbuno, standardised by ICP-MS, with CoA and MSDS on every lot. View Iron 3.6% (Curry Leaf) →
Dosage & Formulator Specification
Production route. The material is produced by controlled extraction and concentration of Murraya koenigii leaf to a 3.6% elemental iron specification. Because the iron is native rather than added, achievable concentration is bounded by the biomass, which is why botanical mineral concentrates sit in single digits while ferrous sulphate is roughly 20% and ferrous fumarate around 33% elemental iron. Delivering 14 mg elemental iron requires approximately 390 mg of this material against about 70 mg of ferrous sulphate — a difference that must be designed into the dosage form from the outset rather than discovered at scale-up.
Analytical standardisation. Elemental iron is determined by ICP-MS or flame AAS after acid digestion; ICP-MS is preferable where the same digest also screens lead, cadmium and arsenic, which carry limits for botanical concentrates. State the assay method on the purchase specification, not merely the percentage. For a plant-matrix iron, phytate and total polyphenol content are worth requesting as supplementary parameters given their documented, dose-dependent effect on absorption — they are not routine release tests but they are the parameters that determine how much of the declared iron is usable.
Regulatory and handling context. Iron has an established Nutrient Reference Value in the EU and authorised health claims covering normal oxygen transport, normal formation of red blood cells and haemoglobin, normal energy-yielding metabolism and reduction of tiredness and fatigue. Claims attach to elemental iron content and are indifferent to source, so a botanical iron carries the same eligibility as a salt at equivalent delivered dose. Accidental iron overdose in children is the principal safety consideration for finished products and drives child-resistant packaging requirements in several markets. Store cool and dry; the powder is hygroscopic.
Formulation behaviour. As a leaf-derived concentrate the material carries green colour and a distinct vegetal aroma that will read through in light or unflavoured systems, making it better suited to tablets, capsules and flavoured or coloured blends than to clear beverages. It is compatible with direct compression and wet granulation. Iron catalyses lipid oxidation, so in matrices containing unsaturated oils, protect with appropriate antioxidant systems and packaging. Where a product must deliver a full NRV of iron in a compact format, pairing a conventional salt for dose with this material for label positioning is a defensible design, provided the label does not imply all the iron is botanically derived.
Frequently Asked Questions — Iron
There is no published head-to-head human absorption trial comparing a curry-leaf iron concentrate against ferrous sulphate or bisglycinate, so a superiority claim cannot be substantiated. Botanical iron is non-heme iron, the same category as iron salts, and is subject to the same phytate and polyphenol inhibition. The defensible positioning is clean label and food-matrix delivery rather than superior absorption.
Potentially, and it is worth specifying. Phytate inhibits non-heme iron absorption in a strongly dose-dependent manner, with human isotope work showing 2 mg of phytate phosphorus reducing absorption by 18% and 250 mg by 82%. Polyphenols inhibit independently, and curry leaf is a polyphenol-containing material. We recommend requesting phytate and total polyphenol figures alongside the iron assay rather than assuming they are negligible.
Yes, it is a mechanistically well-supported design choice. Ascorbic acid counteracts phytate inhibition of non-heme iron absorption, with around 50 mg per main meal indicated for optimal effect in human studies. Be aware the effect size is smaller in complete diets than in single-meal test conditions, so treat vitamin C co-formulation as a sensible optimisation rather than a guarantee of a specific absorption multiple.
It means 3.6% elemental iron by weight, determined by ICP-MS or flame AAS. Delivering 14 mg of elemental iron requires approximately 390 mg of this material, against roughly 70 mg of ferrous sulphate. That is a substantial difference in tablet or capsule real estate and should inform your dosage form selection early in development.
Yes. Iron carries authorised EU claims including contribution to normal oxygen transport, normal formation of red blood cells and haemoglobin, and reduction of tiredness and fatigue, and it has an established Nutrient Reference Value. These attach to elemental iron content rather than to source material, so eligibility depends on your finished product delivering a significant amount per serving. Claim wording and conditions of use remain your regulatory responsibility in your target market.
Every lot ships with a Certificate of Analysis and MSDS as standard, with phytosanitary certification on request. R&D quantities are available at 100 g and 250 g subject to stock, pilot batches at 1–5 kg, and bulk at 10 kg, 25 kg and above. Stock orders dispatch within 72 hours; fresh-batch production, typically 50 kg and above, runs to about 10 working days. Material is processed and sourced in India, giving procurement teams a documented alternative origin.
Related compounds: Vitamin C · Zinc · Myo-inositol
Claim strength scale: High — consistent human data or established biochemistry. Moderate — supportive human data with limitations. Emerging — mechanistic or preliminary evidence only.