Iron deficiency is known to be a common nutritional disorder in many countries, especially among children, women of childbearing age and pregnant women. SUNACTIVE Fe-P80 is a new type of iron supplement that applies nanotechnlateology for the purpose of overcoming the disadvantages of food supplements. This study was conducted to investigate the potential adverse effects of a 28-day repeated oral dose of SUNACTIVE Fe-P80 in rats. SUNACTIVE Fe-P80 was administered once daily by gavage to Sprague-Dawley rats for 28 days at doses of 0, 500, 1,000, and 2,000 mg/kg/day. Additional recovery groups from the control and highdose groups were observed for a 14-day recovery period. At the scheduled termination, the animals were sacrificed, their organs weighed, and blood samples collected. There were no treatment-related effects in the context of clinical signs, body weight, food intake, ophthalmoscopy, urinalysis, necropsy findings, organ weights, and hematologic, serum biochemical and histopathological parameters at any dose tested. Under the present experimental conditions, the no-observed-adverse-effect level of SUNACTIVE Fe-P80 was ≥ 2,000 mg/kg/day in both the sexes, and no target organs were identified. Thus, the results suggest that SUNACTIVE Fe-P80 is relatively safe, as no treatment-related adverse effects were observed following a 28-day repeated oral dose experiment.

Thirty-nine out of eighty-five barley varieties/strains survived until heading stage in the saline experimental field (0.03-0.05~%~;salt) and they were used for pollen study. Light and scanning electron microscopic observations revealed two distinctive types of barley pollens: one transparent and small in size and the other dark and larger. In addition, both types of pollens were stained with Alexander's stain and it was found that the smaller and transparent pollen was cytoplasm-devoid (CD) while the larger pollen was cytoplasm-rich (CR). Sixteen out of 39 barley varieties/lines grown in the saline soil had CR pollens, which were rarely observed in the barley plants grown in the non-saline soil. Moreover, it was observed that salt stress severely reduced seed setting in the varieties having degenerated pollens. These results suggest that salt stress affects the fertility of barley pollen. The sterile pollen was undersized and lack of cytoplasm probably due to abortion. Furthermore, a varietal difference existed in the response of pollen development to salt stress.