Copper · Cu · Atomic number 29
Wollastonitsaum collects what the European Union has authorized for copper: two statements, their origin in the EFSA opinions, and the biochemistry to which they refer.
To the researchCopper is present in an adult body in an amount that would fit on a fingertip. Nonetheless several enzymes depend on this trace element, and their work can be described precisely. Four cards, four excerpts.
The plasma protein ceruloplasmin carries six copper atoms in its structure and works as a ferroxidase. It converts divalent iron into the trivalent form — and only in this form does transferrin take up iron for the journey through the blood.
Around ninety-five percent of the copper circulating in blood plasma is bound to this one protein. The rest travels along with albumin and with small amino acid complexes.
Pursuant to Regulation (EU) No 432/2012
Hephaestin is a copper-containing relative of ceruloplasmin and sits in the basolateral membrane of the enterocytes — that is, exactly on the side where the intestinal cell releases its cargo toward the bloodstream.
There it works directly beside ferroportin, the only known exit for iron from the cell. What ferroportin channels out, hephaestin oxidizes in the same working step.
Description of a metabolic pathway. There is no authorized claim for this detail; the permissible statement on iron transport appears in the first card.
Lysyl oxidase is a copper-dependent enzyme that converts lysine residues in collagen and elastin into allysine. From these allysine residues the cross-connections between neighboring fiber strands subsequently arise.
Without the copper atom in the active center this conversion does not occur. The tensile strength of tendons, vessel walls, and skin traces back to exactly this cross-linking.
Pursuant to Regulation (EU) No 432/2012
The nutrient reference amount for copper in the European Union is 1 mg per day. The percentage that appears on packaging next to the copper amount always refers to exactly this figure.
EFSA moreover cites intake values for adults of around 1.3 mg for women and 1.6 mg for men, as well as a tolerable maximum amount of 5 mg per day.
A figure for labeling purposes. It says nothing about the requirement of any individual person.
Iron is present in the body in two charge states. In the stores and when passing through cell membranes it is divalent; for transport in the blood it must be trivalent, because transferrin — the transport protein of blood plasma — binds only this form. Between the two states stands an oxidation step, and this step is carried out by copper-containing enzymes.
This describes the connection the European Commission has included in its register of authorized claims: „Copper contributes to normal iron transport in the body“ — Pursuant to Regulation (EU) No 432/2012. The statement names a contribution, not an effect and not an impact on how someone feels.
The total stock is about 75 to 100 milligrams. The largest shares are found in the liver and brain, followed by skeletal musculature and bone — whereby muscle, because of its sheer mass, contains a great deal in absolute terms but lies far behind the liver in concentration.
Absorption from food occurs predominantly in the duodenum. The transporter CTR1 brings copper into the cell at the brush border membrane; the absorption rate adjusts to intake and ranges, depending on diet, between roughly twelve and fifty-five percent. The greater part is excreted via the bile.
Within the cell, copper is not carried around freely but handed over by chaperones. Two copper-transporting ATPases determine where it goes: ATP7A channels copper from the intestinal cell into the systemic circulation and supplies, among others, lysyl oxidase; ATP7B sits mainly in the liver, loads ceruloplasmin with its six atoms, and directs the excess into the bile.
This division of labor explains why the two authorized statements on copper refer to such different tissues — one to the blood, the other to the fiber structures of connective tissue.
In the register of authorized health claims there are several statements for copper. Wollastonitsaum takes up two of them, because they correspond to the two enzyme pathways described here:
Both formulations are fixed in their wording. Anyone using them may not paraphrase them, may not sharpen them, and may not combine them with a promise. The condition is fixed too: the claim may be used only for foods containing at least a significant amount of copper within the meaning of nutrition labeling.
Wollastonitsaum sells no preparation and recommends no intake amount. This page explains how the two statements came about and what they represent biochemically.
The detailed edition works through the journey of copper from the CTR1 transporter to the cross-linked collagen fiber, with intake tables, the state of the sources, and a questions section.
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