Selenium Uptake and Biotransformation and Effect of Selenium Exposure on the Essential and Trace Elements Status: Comparative Evaluation of Four Edible Plants

Due to the essential nature of selenium and the beneficial effects attributed to the consumption of selenized plants in human and animal health. The accumulation, metabolism in plants and the effects of this element on the nutritional quality of exposed crops is still a subject of study. The selenium plant enrichment, in addition to providing dietary supplements with organic selenium species as SeMet and MeSeCys, could be a strategy to yield functional foods that guarantee the recommended absorption of other essential minerals. To contributing to the design of biofortification/supplementation strategies to obtain selenized edible sprouts, in this work were selected four types of plants commonly consumed in Mexico (radish, alfalfa, sunflower and chard), which were exposed to different concentrations of sodium selenite (0, 0.25, 0.5, 1.0, 5.0 and 10 mg of Se L-1) for 10 days. At the end of the exposure time, the growth, uptake and biotransformation from iSe to oSe, as well as the impact of Se on the content of other essential elements were evaluated. The results obtained indicate that alfalfa could be a good candidate to produce selenized food supplement, due to its short germination time (5 days), high yield of biomass production without growth inhibition up to selenite concentration corresponding to 10 mg L-1. Using this exposure condition, tSe accumulated in biomass is high (75.0 mu g g(-1)) with 66% of iSe transformed to oSe in plant and with enhanced uptake of important minerals, namely Cu, Mn, Mo, Ca and K.