Profile of selenium in soil and crops in seleniferous area of Punjab, India by neutron activation analysis

Bioaccessibility of selenium from Se-rich food grains of the seleniferous region of Punjab, India as analyzed by instrumental neutron activation analysis

“…The Se concentrations of the samples investigated in this study appear to be the highest ever recorded in cereal grains for human consumption, similar to wheat reported earlier by our group (Cubadda et al, 2010;Sharma et al, 2009). These levels of intake might be leading to chronic toxic effects of Se accumulation in human through Se-rich food grains and livestock fed on rice and maize straw as fodder.…”

“…The uncertainties quoted in Table 1 are the standard deviations at + 1 s confidence limits obtained from three independent sample analyses and the percentage relative standard deviations are in the range of 1.5-5%. INAA quantification of Se in cereal grains, as reported by this group (Sharma et al, 2009), was found to agree with quantification by ICP-MS in the case of wheat (Cubadda et al, 2010).…”

“…Cereals like wheat collected from the seleniferous region of Punjab, India (Nawashahr-Hoshiarpur) were earlier reported by this group to contain highest total Se (115.0 + 2.4 mg kg 71 ) ever recorded in wheat across the globe (Sharma et al, 2009). The wheat was observed to contain SeMet as a dominant organic form of Se (Cubadda et al, 2010).…”

“…The INAA based approach has been routinely used to analyze various biological samples like medicinal leaves, cereals including wheat, rice, and maize, legumes, foodstuffs and reference materials for multielement analysis (Acharya, Nair, Reddy, & Manohar, 2002;Balaji et al, 2000a,b;Rajurkar & Pardeshi, 1997;Sharma et al, 2009). Neutron activation analysis (NAA) is an isotope specific nuclear analytical technique capable of simultaneous multielement determination in diverse matrices.…”

Selenium in storage proteins of wheat cultivated on selenium impacted soils of Punjab, India

“…The largest one (>1000 ha) is the seleniferous belt of the District Nawanshahr (31 o 13' N, 76 o 21' E, Punjab, India) with signifi cantly high Se concentrations being reported in locally grown crops (SHARMA et al, 2009). The quantifi cation and speciation studies carried out by our group indicated that wheat, cultivated in this region, is able to accumulate Se at concentrations up to 146 μg g -1 in vegetative tissues and 185 μg g -1 in grain, with selenomethionine (SeMet) constituting dominant fraction (>75%) followed by selenite and selenocystine (AURELI et al, 2013).…”