Abstract
Selenium (Se) is an essential element for humans. Its consumption comes from food of animal or vegetal origin; whose content varies widely depending on its availability in soil or anthropogenic sources. Biofortification improves food nutritional quality, and its consumption has a positive influence in human health. Thus, the objective of this research was to assess agricultural biofortification with Se in tomato fruit and its effects on yield, nutraceutical quality, and antioxidant capacity. Five Se doses (0, 2, 4, 6, and 8 mg L-1) in the form of sodium selenite (Na2SeO3) were added in a nutritional solution in a hydroponic system. The results obtained indicated that agricultural biofortification with Se applied in the nutritional solution improved yield, nutraceutical quality, and Se concentration in tomato fruit. The optimum Se dose that maximized yield and nutraceutical quality, as well as the recommended consumption concentration in tomato fruit in this study was 2 mg L-1 (Na2SeO4) because higher doses decreased yield and bioactive compound biosynthesis. Incorporating Se in the nutritional solution is an alternative to increase phytochemical compound biosynthesis in tomato fruit and yield with the possibility of improving public health with its consumption.
Highlights
Selenium (Se) is an essential micronutrient for humans (Hu et al, 2019), its consumption comes from food of animal and plant origin, which show variations in their Se content due to the availability of this microelement in soil or the synthethic sources applied anthropogenically (Utoiu et al, 2017)
Selenium has been reported to improve yield in low dosage (Narváez-Ortiz et al, 2018; Rady et al, 2020) and act as antioxidant when plant capacity increases to resist oxidative stress caused by ROS under stress conditions
Plant response to Selenium differs according to the applied concentration (Puccinelli et al, 2017), species sensitivity (Lyons, 2018), chemical species used and form of application, which is why the optimum dose for each crop should be determined (Ramos et al, 2010; Oliveira et al, 2018)
Summary
Selenium (Se) is an essential micronutrient for humans (Hu et al, 2019), its consumption comes from food of animal and plant origin, which show variations in their Se content due to the availability of this microelement in soil or the synthethic sources applied anthropogenically (Utoiu et al, 2017). According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Se consumption in human diet should be from 55-200 μg/day per adult. Received in revised form: 03 Aug 2020.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
