Effect of time and storing conditions on iron forms in ferrous gluconate and Ascofer®

Antianemic medicament Ascofer® and ferrous gluconate, its basic iron bearing ingredient, were studied with the use of Mössbauer spectroscopy. Room temperature spectra gave a clear evidence that two phases of iron were present viz. ferrous (Fe2+) as a major one with a contribution of ∼85 ± 5%, and ferric (Fe3+) whose contribution was found to be ∼15 ± 5%. However, the actual values of the contributions of the two kinds of the iron ions in Ascofer® were shown to depend on sample’s age: the abundance of Fe2+ ions increased with time by ∼10% after 51 months, while that of Fe3+ decreased by the same amount. This means that an internal reduction of Fe3+ ions took place. The ferrous ions were shown to occupy three different sites with populations of ∼75–79% for site 1, and ∼8–23% for site 2, and ∼1–13% for site 3.