IRON TROPON

The composition of Iron Tropon seems to have varied from time to time. The manufacturers formerly stated that it contained fat, sugar, pepsin and iron in organic combination with albumin, and its use was advocated both as a food and as a medicine. It was not claimed to contain over 1 per cent. of pepsin, but tests failed to show that it contained any pepsin, or if any, such a small amount that there was not sufficient to digest the albumin in Iron Tropon itself. It was also claimed that the iron, being in organic combination with the albumin, possessed advantages over the widely used aromatic fluid preparations of iron. Tests, however, showed that the iron was not in organic combination, though even had it been, late investigations fail to demonstrate the superiority of the organic over inorganic iron compounds.

The manufacturers state in their later “literature” that Iron Tropon is a tonic and a food; that it is a compound of the food albumin tropon, 2.5 per cent. of iron in its most assimilable form, and enough chocolate to flavor it agreeably. It will be noted that they now make no claim for pepsin, nor do they state that it contains iron in organic form. In the dose recommended, a teaspoonful three times a day for an adult, the patient gets something over a grain of iron, and he might as well take an equivalent quantity of Blaud’s mass, the value of which has been proved.

As a food, Iron Tropon, weight for weight, is about equal to beans and a little better than flour, although it contains a larger percentage of protein than either. In the dose stated, an invalid would get about 50 calories, or about ¹⁄₄₀ the necessary nourishment for a day. Tests have also shown that the albumin is difficult of digestion. In spite of this fact, the advertisement of Iron Tropon states: “A patient who takes Iron Tropon receives not only the benefit of iron medication, but at the same time his economy is supplied with perfectly assimilable albumin in sufficient quantity.” It will thus be seen that the claim for pepsin in this preparation has been abandoned, that the statement as to the iron being in organic form has been modified, and that the food value of the albumin is exaggerated; but perhaps the manufacturers do not expect the physician to apply his arithmetic to such problems.—(From The Journal A. M. A., April 23, 1910.)