Zinc is essential for growth and development of all living organisms, especially human being. Deficiency of micronutrients like zinc and iron has been linked to the manifestation of hidden hunger. Therefore, it is imperative that development of some rapid screening method for bioavailable zinc in various crops and food commodities would be an essential addition in battle against zinc deficiency related hidden hunger. One such method could be the usage of fluorescence based zinc ion sensing probe which would be robust and convenient for estimating bioavailable zinc. To address this issue, NBD-TPEA, a highly sensitive zinc ion sensing probe, have been used in this study towards the development of a novel fluorescence based approach for the analysis of zinc bioavailability in Caco-2 cells as an in-vitro cellular model. The use of this probe showed dose dependent sensitivity towards increasing concentrations of zinc ion uptake by Caco-2 cells. It also showed specificity for zinc ion uptake as compared to other metal ions in-vitro. These observations correlated extremely well with zinc uptake analysis by cell imaging and conventional analytical technique like, ICP-MS. The developed assay was then tested in mushroom and some selected biofortified derivatives of wheat for determining the levels of their bioavailable zinc using Caco-2 cells. The data as obtained with these food samples in our developed bioassay correlated well with the other sophisticated analytical techniques thus validating our cell based assay. Hence, the developed assay could serve as a simple but sensitive tool for determining bioavailable zinc in various food samples.

锌对于所有生物尤其是人类的生长都是必不可少的。微量元素如锌和铁的缺乏与隐性饥饿的表现有关。因此，迫切需要开发一种快速筛查各种农作物和食品中可生物利用的锌的方法，这将是与锌缺乏相关的隐性饥饿作斗争的必不可少的补充。一种这样的方法可以是使用基于荧光的锌离子感测探针，该探针对于估计生物可利用的锌将是鲁棒且方便的。为了解决这个问题，NBD-TPEA，一种高灵敏的锌离子感测探针，已在本研究中用于开发基于荧光的新颖方法，用于分析体外Caco-2细胞中锌的生物利用度。使用该探针显示出对Caco-2细胞摄取锌离子浓度增加的剂量依赖性敏感性。与其他体外金属离子相比，它也显示出锌离子吸收的特异性。这些观察结果与通过细胞成像和常规分析技术（如ICP-MS）进行的锌吸收分析非常相关。然后在蘑菇和一些精选的小麦生物强化衍生物中测试开发的测定法，以使用Caco-2细胞测定其生物利用锌的水平。在我们开发的生物测定中使用这些食物样品获得的数据与其他复杂的分析技术紧密相关，从而验证了我们基于细胞的测定。因此，开发的测定法可以作为一种简单而灵敏的工具来测定各种食品样品中的生物利用锌。