Question

A doctor prescribed a tablet to a patient suffering from iron
deficiency. The tablet does not look like iron. Explain.


NCERT Class VIII
Science - Exemplar Problems

Chapter 4. Materials: Metals and Non-Metals

Answer 1

Doctor prescribes the Iron tablets to a person suffering with iron deficiency .
Iron tablets does not contains iron metal , rather it contains Iron salts like ferrous sulphate,ferrous citrate etc.
On taking these tablets,during digestion the salts of iron break down .

Hence iron tablets does not look like iron which is a metal in element form.

Answer 2

Because our stomach can't take and digest iron or ferum directly so the tablets of iron contain iron compounds which our stomach accepts and can digest. Later this iron taken in compound form fulfills our body iron requirements. That's why iron tablets do not look like iron.