Currently, there is a significant issue of iron deficiency among many people, leading to widespread use of iron supplements. However, many are unaware that iron can be toxic, and excessive iron poses substantial health risks. how effective is rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) as an antioxidant and its potential to prevent iron deposition within cells?
Just before launching into a full-scale dietary survey and randomized control trial testing your idea, do a few calculations and see just how likely iron toxicity is.
From the online Merck manuals website: Iron Poisoning - https://www.msdmanuals.com/en-in/professional/injuries-poisoning/poisoning/iron-poisoning suggests that from to 20-60 mg/kg is mildly to severely toxic.
An example tablet I googled contains ~100mg elemental iron as 325mg ferrous sulphate. A 30kg child would need to ingest 6 to 18 tablets to receive this sort of dose. Obviously quite possible if the child thinks it is a confectionary item.
Notwithstanding the claim that iron poisoning is a leading cause of child deaths in the Merck reference, I doubt that rosemary or any other antioxidant is likely to be beneficial in these cases of acute toxicity.
On the other hand, chronic iron accumulation as described by Fleming and Ponka 2012 Iron Overload in Human Disease | New England Journal of Medicine (nejm.org)Article Iron Overload in Human Disease
may be a suitable target for your ideas. However, whether your suggestion treats the symptoms rather than the underlying causes they list (eg disorders of hepcidin-ferriportin axis, erythroid maturation, iron transport or a couple of other situations), seems a little far-fetched (to me at least). Treating a congenitally inherited disease with a simple herbal extract is probably not going to show a significant positive result in a complex system even if you can show results in vitro. (Note that Fleming and Ponka seem to advocate phlebotomy (bloodletting) as the primary treatment for excess iron, so maybe it can't hurt.)I guess you could try and prepare an experimental plan with appropriate ethics approvals, but it seems an unlikely starter to me.
Some other references worth reading for you:
(PDF) Iron Load Toxicity in Medicine: From Molecular and Cellular Aspects to Clinical Implications (researchgate.net)
Article Iron Load Toxicity in Medicine: From Molecular and Cellular ...
(PDF) Iron intake and multiple health outcomes: Umbrella review (researchgate.net)Article Iron intake and multiple health outcomes: Umbrella review
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