Selenium bio-fortification: an alternative to improve phytochemicals and bioactivities of plant foods

Abstract

Background: Plants are the major food sources which possess marvelous health benefits and wellness to human. To date, the effort to improve composites in plants using bio-fortification technique is expedient in order to obtain super plant foods. Selenium (Se) is an essential trace element works on antioxidant system in living things. Se has been bio-fortified into plants worldwide to increase Se content in plants as well as improve some plant bioactive compounds and biological properties. However, restricted documents were elucidated on the summary and underlying mechanisms which provide beneficial effects on plant phytochemicals and bioactivities improvement. This review attempts to study available literatures on Se bio-fortified plants and clarified possible routes that Se may effect to plants. Increasing the content of Se bio-fortified to plants resulted in both positive and negative effects. The appropriate exogenous concentration of Se bio-fortified to individual plants which can support growth or induce them to the early stage of stress are the vital strategic to provide desired effects on an improvement of phytochemicals, for example, chlorophyll, phenolic compounds, ascorbic acid. Moreover, the greater antioxidant, anti-cancer and prebiotic properties were also reported while higher doses of Se were toxic to plants. Consequently, Se bio-fortification can be claimed as a unique strategy to improve plant treasures.

Keywords: Selenium, Bio-fortification, Phytochemicals, Bioactivities