Field experiments were conducted on wheat to study the effects of foliar-applied iodine(I) alone, Zn (zinc) alone, and a micronutrient cocktail solution containing I, Zn, Se (selenium), and Fe (iron) on grain yield and grain concentrations of micronutrients. Plants were grown over 2 years in China, India, Mexico, Pakistan, South Africa, and Turkey. Grain-Zn was increased from 28.6 mg kg −1 to 46.0 mg −1 kg with Zn-spray and 47.1 mg −1 kg with micronutrient cocktail spray. Foliar-applied I and micronutrient cocktail increased grain I from 24 μg kg −1 to 361 μg kg −1 and 249 μg kg −1 , respectively. Micronutrient cocktail also increased grain-Se from 90 μg kg −1 to 338 μg kg −1 in all countries. Average increase in grain-Fe by micronutrient cocktail solution was about 12%. The results obtained demonstrated that foliar application of a cocktail micronutrient solution represents an effective strategy to biofortify wheat simultaneously with Zn, I, Se and partly with Fe without yield trade-off in wheat.
Enrichment
of food crops with iodine is an option to alleviate
dietary deficiencies. Therefore, foliar iodine fertilizer was applied
on wheat and rice, in the presence and absence of the other micronutrients
zinc and selenium. This treatment increased the concentration of iodine,
as well as zinc and selenium, in the staple grains. Subsequently,
potential iodine losses during preparation of foodstuffs with the
enriched grains were studied. Oven-heating did not affect the iodine
content in bread. Extraction of bran from flour lowered the iodine
in white bread compared to wholegrain bread, but it was still markedly
higher compared to the control. During subsequent in vitro gastrointestinal
digestion, a higher percentage of iodine was released from foods based
on extracted flour (82–92%) compared to wholegrain foods (50–76%).
The foliar fertilization of wheat was found to be adequate to alleviate
iodine deficiency in a population with a moderate to high intake of
bread.
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