Phytic acid, an anticarcinogenic food component, stimulates apoptosis of tumor cells. Similar to apoptosis, human erythrocytes may undergo suicidal death or eryptosis, characterized by cell membrane scrambling and cell shrinkage. Triggers of eryptosis include energy depletion. Phytate intake could cause anemia, an effect attributed to iron complexation. The present experiments explored whether phytic acid influences eryptosis. Supernatant hemoglobin concentration was determined to reveal hemolysis, annexin V-binding in FACS analysis was utilized to identify erythrocytes with scrambled cell membrane, forward scatter in FACS analysis was taken as a measure of cell volume, and a luciferin-luciferase assay was employed to determine erythrocyte ATP content. As a result, phytic acid (>or=1 mM) did not lead to significant hemolysis, but significantly increased the percentage of annexin V-binding erythrocytes, significantly decreased forward scatter, and significantly decreased cellular ATP content. In conclusion, phytic acid stimulates suicidal human erythrocyte death, an effect paralleling its proapoptotic effect on nucleated cells.