Selenium content of food consumed by Egyptians

Quantitative determination of selenium in the most common food items sold in Egypt

“…These results highlighted that Allium genus (onion, garlic) tends to accumulate Se probably because of their greater fraction of sulfur-containing amino acids [ 21 ], where adequate analogs of these can be formed by substitution of sulfur with Se, resulting in high Se levels. These results were higher than those reported by Askar and Bielig [ 17 ] in Egypt who found that Se values in garlic and onion were 0.52 and 0.02 μg/g respectively. Choi et al [ 19 ] in Korea reported that, onions and garlic had 0.052 and 0.021 μg/g, respectively.…”

“…Regarding selenium content in nuts, it was found that sesame seeds had the highest Se value 5.89 μg/g as presented in Table 1, and this finding is contradicted with Askar and Bielig [17] who stated that, sesame seeds revealed much lower Se content 0.38 μg/g, that may be due to Askar study was done in 1983, and also due to more sophisticated and advanced instrument was used in the present study.…”

“…This value is not in agreement with other researchers. Askar and Bielig [ 17 ] stated that Se content of Egyptian fenugreek was 0.29 μg/g; Karadas [ 23 ] stated that content of Se in fenugreek was zero, and Al-Ahmary [ 24 ] stated that Se content in Saudi Arabia’s fenugreek seeds was 0.022 μg/g. This may be attributed to enrichment of Egyptian soil with minerals [ 25 ].…”

“…All the wet-digested samples were ready to determine Se content by Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry, USA. (Varian 720-ES) [17].…”

“…Fats and connective tissue were discarded from meat and poultry, while in case of seafood only edible parts of tissue were analyzed; head, skin, viscera, scales, and tail were removed. Edible portions of vegetables and fruits were homogenized well in a porcelain mortar to obtain homogeneous samples [17].…”