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Speciation 98: Abstracts
Nor Kartini Abu Bakar, David M. Taylor, and David R. Williams
Department of Chemistry, Speciation and Analytical Research Group, Cardiff University, P.O. Box 912, Cardiff, Wales, CF1 3TB, UK.
Seven clinical trial reports on zinc gluconate lozenges for treating the common cold have been assessed. The chemical speciation of resting saliva with and without added zinc gluconate was computed to determine the concentrations of more than 1,000 species which may be formed in vivo by using the Joint Expert Speciation System (JESS) for computer simulation. Correlations for the biological response measured as a reduction in the common cold symptoms with (i) the total amount of zinc administered, and (ii) the salivary concentration of zinc species were investigated using computed output from our saliva model. The results show that there is a significant correlation between biological response and salivary concentration of free Zn2+ ions. There is no obvious correlation between biological response and the total amount of zinc present during the oral intake of zinc gluconate lozenges.
