Selenium Supplementation in Horticultural Crops

1       INTRODUCTION

2       THE ROLE OF SELENIUM IN HUMAN NUTRITION

2.1      Selenium as an essential element

2.1.1           Symptoms of selenium deficiency in human body

2.1.2           Selenium presence and transport in human organism

2.1.3           Biochemical function of selenium in the human body

2.2      Occurrence of selenium in nature and its potential sources

2.2.1           Selenium occurrence in soil (selenium content in soils of the Slovak Republic, selenium forms in soil, soil properties affecting selenium mobility and uptake)

2.2.2           Selenium occurrence in water

2.2.3           Selenium occurrence in air

2.3     Entering selenium into the food chain

2.3.1           Selenium uptake and transport in the plant (biosynthesis of selenocysteine)

2.3.2           Incorporation of selenium into proteins

2.3.3           Distribution of selenium in the plant

2.3.4           Transformation of selenium in the plant

2.3.5           Selenium content in food of plant origin

     2.4      Options of selenium supplementation in food chain

        2.4.1        Possibilities of selenium biofortification of horticultural crops

3       METHODS FOR DETERMINATION OF SELENIUM IN FOODSTUFFS

3.2      Methods for the determination of organic selenium compounds (High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), Gas Chromatography (GC), Electrophoresis, Autoradiography)

4       SELENIUM UPTAKE BY SELECTED VEGETABLE

SPECIES AFTER FORTIFICATION OF THE GROWING SUBSTRATE

4.1     Garden pea (Pisum sativum L.)

4.1.1           Pot experiments in the Phytochamber

4.1.1.1      Correlation of Se content in soil and in the pea plant

4.1.1.2      Transfer factor and transfer index (Selenium use efficiency by plant, Selenium balance in pea plants)

4.2      Cabbage (Brassica oleracea var. capitata L.)

4.3      Selenium accumulation in various vegetable species after soil biofortification

5       SELENIUM UPTAKE BY SELECTED VEGETABLE

SPECIES AFTER FOLIAR APPLICATION

5.1      Garden pea (Pisum sativum L

5.1.1           Selenium content

5.1.2           Selected qualitative parameters after foliar treatment with selenium (total polyphenol content, chlorophylls content, antioxidant activity)

5.2      Broccoli (Brassica oleracea L. var. italica)

5.2.1           Selenium content

5.2.2           Selected qualitative parameters after foliar treatment with selenium (total polyphenol content, antioxidant activity, vitamin C content, chlorophylls content, carotenoids content, sulforaphane content)

5.2.3           Effect of foliar application of selenium on quantitative parameters (yield, average weight (AW) of florets)

5.3      Basil (Ocimum spp.)

5.3.1           Selenium content

5.3.2           Selected qualitative parameters after foliar treatment with selenium (total polyphenol content, essential oils content, chlorophylls content, antioxidant activity)

5.3.3           Effect of foliar application of selenium on quantitative parameters (yield)

5.4      Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.)

5.4.1           Selenium content

5.4.2           Selected qualitative parameters after foliar treatment with selenium (total carotenoids content, vitamin C content, total polyphenol content, antioxidant activity)

5.4.3           Effect of foliar application of selenium on quantitative parameters (refractometric dry mater, yield)

5.5      Oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus)

5.5.1           Selenium content

5.5.2           Selected qualitative parameters after foliar treatment with selenium (total polyphenol content, total glucan content, antioxidant activity)

6         CHANGES OF SELENIUM CONTENT IN EDIBILITIES DURING THE PROCESSING

7       CONCLUSION

Prof. RNDr. Alžbeta Hegedusová, PhD. is a full professor at the Department of Vegetable Production at the Slovak University of Agriculture. In her professional career, as she worked at the Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra (Department of Chemistry) and at the Slovak University of Agriculture, she has been project leader and co-worker in 40 research and educational projects. Her research activities have been focused on the research of toxic effects of inorganic contaminants in the soil-plant system to verify the possibilities of their intake elimination by horticultural crops with the use of phytoremediation techniques. Another field of research interest has been devoted to the solution of insufficiency of bioactive substances via differentiation of mineral nutrition (especially Selenium) in the horticultural crops leading to increase the level of the substances in the agricultural products. The topic has been elaborated in original research studies published in  35 papers foreign and Slovak journals within the Web of Science and Scopus databases, 60 papers in the foreign and Slovak journals, 110 proceedings in the foreign and Slovak proceeding books and conferences. She is a co-author of 3 university textbooks, 5 monographs and 7 students textbooks. She has been a supervisor of 8 doctoral theses.