SPECIFIC FEATURES OF THE TRACE ELEMENT COMPOSITION OF THE CULTIVATED FLAX AND SOME OF ITS WILD RELATIVES

Abstract

Controlling the content of trace elements in human food is a major problem. Lack of them, as well as their excess, can seriously affect a person’s health. Commonly, people do not receive enough minerals they need. Though these minerals are found in products of both animal and plant origin, many ethnic groups have a significant preference for plant food, which is very often obtained from cereal plants. Not infrequently, though, these plants are poor in mineral elements, or a specific processing technology depletes a product of minerals. This article shows the content of such trace elements important for people as zinc, copper, cobalt, and nickel in the seeds and leaves of cultivated flax (L. usitatissimum) and its three wild perennial relatives (L. austriacum, L. hirsutum, and L. thracicum). We focus on flax, because, besides containing valuable trace elements, it is also a source of unsaturated fatty acids which are no less important for the human body. To date, there is but little information on the content of certain trace elements in the seeds of cultivated flax, and practically nothing is known about their content in its wild relatives, which are used mainly as decorative verdure. It has been established that the seeds contain 37.1-64.2 mg/kg of zinc, 5.3-9.3mg/kg of copper, 2.9-7.3mg/kg of nickel, and 1.4-3.3mg/kg of cobalt. In the leaves, these trace elements are present in far smaller amounts (1.1-4.3mg/kg). The highest in these trace elements is the wild species L. thracicum, and the lowest is L. austriacum. It has been found that in the plant material of cultivated flax, the ratio of the microelements under study was similar to that in the wild species. Zinc predominates in the flax seeds, but in the leaves, it exceeds other elements only insignificantly. Generally, both cultivated flax and its three wild relatives can be viewed as valuable and worthwhile sources of zinc, cobalt, copper, and nickel.