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MANFRED ANKE AN. R. ACAD. NAC. FARM.

INTRODUCTION

Vanadium (V) was discovered in 1802/1803 by the Spanish mine-
ralogist A. M. del Río in Mexico. The element was rediscovered in 1831
by the Swedish chemist Selfström in iron ore smelting products and
named vanadium in honour of Vanadia, the northern Germanic
goddess of beauty, more commonly known as Freya. In the same year,
the identity of the element was established by Wöhler (102).

In 1876, Priestley and Gamgee (100) reported on the toxicity of
sodium vanadate in several species of animals. A classic paper for
the pharmacological and toxicological actions of vanadium appeared
in 1912 (69). At the same time, high vanadium concentrations were
discovered in the blood of ascidian worms (58). During the follow-
ing 50 years it was found that vanadate inhibits ATPase (104), and
in the 1980s vanadium was identified as an insulin-mimetic agent
(113). The first vanadium-containing enzyme, bromoperoxidase, was
isolated some years later from marine algae (128). The most subs-
tantive evidence for vanadium essentiality in higher animals was
found in goats and rats in the 1980s (11, 94).

With an annually world production of about 50000 t V2O, vana-
dium is used in steel production. Small amounts of the element also
occur in fossil fuels (105, 121). The possibly essential, pharmacollo-
gial effective and toxic element is extensively used in industry and
constitutes a factor of environmental pollution.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Vanadium analyses were carried out after dry ashing the biologi-
cal material by means of sequential ICP OES at the line position of
292, 402 nm (Spectroflame-D, Spectro Analytical Instruments). Ac-
curacy of the measurement was examined with the reference mate-
rials «bush tweigs and leaves (GBWO7602)», APS1075, trace metals
in drinking water and AEA H-G mixed human diet (67, 68, 110).
Daily duplicates of all consumed foods and drinks were collected
from seven men and seven women on seven subsequent days and
their daily urine and faeces were analysed. The vanadium intake was
determined and vanadium balance was calculated. Duplicates and

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