ABSTRACT
It is well known that nutritional status may have a marked effect on the way drugs are metabolized by the body (1-3). This awareness is of particular significance because of the enormous variation in food intake in different areas of the world. A report (4) from the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 500 million people throughout the world are underfed. Primary malnutrition caused by poverty and food shortage is a frequent, usually intermittent, feature of the less-developed countries (LDCs), whereas in more affluent societies, secondary malnutrition may result from a number of disease states.
