Introduction to organic zinc types and their functions

Organic zinc is an essential mineral element for animals. Its role and clinical application are the current research on trace element nutrition. One of the more prominent ones. There are three forms of zinc added to feed, inorganic zinc: zinc oxide, zinc sulfate, etc.; simple organic acid zinc: zinc gluconate, zinc citrate, etc.; amino acid and protein complexes of zinc: protein chelated zinc, lysine, etc. Zinc acid, zinc glycinate, etc. The most studied one at present is amino acid chelated zinc.

Types and characteristics of organic zinc:

Organic zinc includes complex zinc, organic chelated zinc, protein zinc salts and polysaccharide zinc complexes. Zinc is mainly absorbed, transported, stored and utilized in the body in an organically bound state. Therefore, it is the organic matter or chelate of zinc that acts in the body, not the free inorganic zinc ions.
Organic zinc is closer to its form of action in the body. Organic zinc exists stably in the digestive tract and does not form complexes with other substances that hinder absorption. It can be more effectively transported from the intestinal villi to the cell epithelium, and then converted into a form with biochemical functions.

The biological potency of organic zinc is higher than that of inorganic zinc. Wedekind’s experiments showed that compared to ZnS04 (100%), the biological potency of Zn-Met ranged from 117% to 206%, depending on the complexity of the diet. Adding 250mg/kg Zn-Met to piglet diet has a growth-promoting effect equivalent to 2000mg/kg Zn0. In experiments on sheep, the biological potency of Zn-Met was higher than that of ZnS04 (Spear, 1989; Zhu Zhiguo, 1996). Studies on broiler chickens have shown that the biological potency of Zn-Met is 1.2 times higher than that of inorganic salts.

The molecular formula of organic zinc must contain hydrocarbons, such as zinc isooctanoate, zinc naphthenate, dimethyl zinc, lauryl dibutyl zinc, etc., which belong to the organic zinc category. Zinc is an essential element for animals and is called the “life element” because of its extensive physiological and biochemical functions in animals. Traditionally, zinc in animal diets is added in the form of inorganic salts, but the absorption rate of zinc added in inorganic forms is low and it easily interacts with other trace mineral elements.