The organic forms of trace elements are considered more bioavailable than the inorganic forms. Although yeast can enrich metal elements and convert inorganic zinc to organic species, its tolerability and transforming capacity are limited. It would therefore be very interesting to look for higher conversion and accumulation in zinc fungi to obtain organic bound zinc from the natural environment. In this paper, potato dextrose agar (PDA) medium containing 800 μg/mL zinc was used for initial screening, with twenty-two fungal strains that tolerated high zinc isolated from the natural environment, and one strain (No.LZ-1108) growing well at a zinc (II) concentration of 10,000 μg/mL. According to morphological analysis, 18S rDNA sequence analysis, and biophysical and biochemical characteristics, No.LZ-1108 was tentatively identified as Fusarium oxysporum. Using atomic absorption spectrometry, the zinc content in the No.LZ-1108 cells was found to be 6.7 mg/g dry cell. After oral administration to rats at a dose of 10 mg Zn (II)/kg body weight, the area under the plasma concentration-time curve (AUC) and the maximum zinc blood concentration (Cmax) of No.LZ-1108 and zinc gluconate were 8.10 g/L.min and 4.28 g/L.min, 23.72 μg/mL and 6.23 μg/mL, respectively. The AUC of No.LZ-1108 was significantly higher than those of zinc gluconate (P<0.05), and the mean relative bioavailability of AUC(test)/AUC(zinc gluconate) was 190 %, which showed that the bound zinc in No.LZ-1108 was more bioavailable than zinc gluconate. The present study reports an interesting alternative to developing zinc-based supplements from a natural source of zinc.
Keywords: bioavailability; high-zinc-enriched fungi; organic bound zinc.