Abstract
Insufficient or suboptimal dietary intake of iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn) represent a latent health issue affecting a large proportion of the global population, particularly among young children and women living in poor regions at high risk of malnutrition. Agronomic crop biofortification, which consists of increasing the accumulation of target nutrients in edible plant tissues through fertilization or other eliciting factors, has been proposed as a short-term approach to develop functional staple crops and vegetables to address micronutrient deficiency. The aim of the presented study was to evaluate the potential for biofortification of Brassicaceae microgreens through Zn and Fe enrichment. The effect of nutrient solutions supplemented with zinc sulfate (Exp-1; 0, 5, 10, 20 mg L−1) and iron sulfate (Exp-2; 0, 10, 20, 40 mg L−1) was tested on the growth, yield, and mineral concentration of arugula, red cabbage, and red mustard microgreens. Zn and Fe accumulation in all three species increased according to a quadratic model. However, significant interactions were observed between Zn or Fe level and the species examined, suggesting that the response to Zn and Fe enrichment was genotype specific. The application of Zn at 5 and 10 mg L−1 resulted in an increase in Zn concentration compared to the untreated control ranging from 75% to 281%, while solutions enriched with Fe at 10 and 20 mg L−1 increased Fe shoot concentration from 64% in arugula up to 278% in red cabbage. In conclusion, the tested Brassicaceae species grown in soilless systems are good targets to produce high quality Zn and Fe biofortified microgreens through the simple manipulation of nutrient solution composition.
Highlights
Iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn) are key trace-elements essential for human health, and their dietary deficiency affects over a quarter of the world population, causing physiological disorders, diseases, and even death, constituting a primary global public health challenge [1,2,3,4]
The single shoot mean fresh weight was highest in red cabbage and lowest for arugula, which had the lowest yield and the highest shoot population density, despite the fact that both Brassica species did not differ in terms of fresh yield
While there are no simple solutions to such a complex public health issue, the agronomic biofortification of staple crops and vegetables
Summary
Iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn) are key trace-elements essential for human health, and their dietary deficiency affects over a quarter of the world population, causing physiological disorders, diseases, and even death, constituting a primary global public health challenge [1,2,3,4]. Iron is a crucial constituent of proteins such as hemoglobin and myoglobin devoted to oxygen transportation within the human body, and it is a constituent and activator of a variety of enzymes that are involved in electron transport, oxidation-reduction reactions, and other biological functions [5]. Following Fe in terms of quantitative body requirements, Zn is a structural constituent of proteins or a catalyzing cofactor involved in the activity of several vital enzymes such as RNA polymerase, superoxide dismutase, cellular signaling proteins, playing a key role in multiple biological functions [8,9]. Like Fe, Zn deficiency is associated with poor, non-diversified diets characterized by high prevalence of cereal-based food products which have low Zn content and bioavailability [2,4]
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