CONICET studies how to increase selenium concentrations in mushrooms, crops and dairy products
CONICET/DICYT CONICET researcher at the Biological Research Institute (IIB, CONICET-UNMDP) Fernando Muñoz works on biofortification with selenium of foods such as broccoli and edible mushrooms, with the aim of improving their nutritional properties and making them healthier. He is currently one of those responsible for the international project Se4All, financed by the European Community, which aims to increase the concentration of selenium in alfalfa plants, which are livestock feed, to incorporate this element in dairy production. Due to his achievements in this area, the researcher was also invited to speak about his progress at conferences in China and Thailand.
The expert explains that selenium is an essential micronutrient for the proper functioning of the immune system and that there is evidence of the existence of a relationship between the deficiency of this nutrient in humans and the development of certain diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases and different types of cancer. “It is an antioxidant par excellence and is also involved in different defense pathways of our body. If we have a low consumption of selenium, our body will be more predisposed to developing diseases,” says Muñoz.
Biofortification consists of improving the nutritional properties of crops through agronomic interventions. In the case of selenium, its incorporation occurs biologically and does not imply the use of transgenic techniques, since the plants are not genetically altered. Instead, selenium is added through fertilization.
“The only way to incorporate selenium into the human body is through intake and it is estimated that fifteen percent of the world’s population does not ingest the daily amount that the body needs. That is, approximately one billion people around the world are deficient in the consumption of this element,” explains the researcher.
This situation is no different in Argentina: “According to the studies we have done based on the diet consumed by the average Argentine, we were able to estimate that we are a population deficient in consumption,” says the scientist. This micronutrient is found in relative abundance mainly in fish, shellfish and some types of nuts native to Brazil. For this reason, it is necessary to look for enrichment alternatives so that the products have a high selenium content and are those that are actually consumed.
Muñoz’s research began with broccoli, a plant that has the ability to accumulate selenium, unlike other crops, and then added new foods to include in the diet. With this motivation, the project of producing cheeses and other dairy products that are mass consumption products arose: “In this way we can reach a larger number of the population, but at the same time there are also people who do not consume dairy products and who have other types of diets such as vegan ones. So we also cover that spectrum of consumers through the cultivation of functional edible mushrooms enriched in selenium,” says the researcher.
The international Se4All project
Muñoz is one of the scientists responsible for the innovative project that works to biofortify the alfalfa that cows eat with organic selenium and thus obtain healthier dairy products. The project is called Se-bioFORtified ALfaLfa for Se-enriched Dairy products (Se4All), it is developed by a public-private consortium made up of institutions from Argentina, Italy, Spain and Ireland and is financed by the European Community within the Horizon 2020 program: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research and Innovation Staff Exchange.
The biologist graduated from the National University of Mar del Plata and in 2015 he joined CONICET as a researcher, with a place of work in the Faculty of Agrarian Sciences of the National University of the Litoral, where he began to work on biofortification of horticultural crops to improve its nutritional properties. From that work, he made great advances in the subject and was summoned by a researcher from the Autonomous University of Barcelona to participate in the international project that was looking for a specialist in biofortification of crops with selenium.
The objective of the colleagues from Spain was to generate an improvement in the agri-food value chain and obtain dairy products enriched in selenium. “From my position at the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, what I proposed was to fortify alfalfa plants so that after the cow eats that biofortified plant, the selenium can be transferred to milk and all derived dairy products,” he says. the expert
The project included laboratory tests “We knew that broccoli easily assimilated selenium but the same did not happen with alfalfa plants, so we had to do work for almost a year to see the appropriate dose and form of application that had to be applied. to the crop,” indicates the specialist.
Once the entire methodology was developed on a laboratory scale, it was transferred to a real scale in conjunction with the National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA) of Rafaela, which has experimental fields and dairy farms. The cattle were fed with the enriched alfalfa and milk was obtained. At the National Institute of Industrial Technology (INTI-Lácteos) of Rafaela, a techno-functional study was carried out on the milk obtained and the different dairy products (such as, for example, powdered milk, yogurts, cheeses and whey) from analytical measurements, sensory evaluation and development of protocols for the process.
Then, the fortified dairy samples produced in Argentina were analyzed in European laboratories with the technologies available there. At the ALBA Synchrotron in Cerdanyola del Vallès (Barcelona), a complex of electron accelerators that allows visualizing the atomic and molecular structure of materials and studying their properties, the accumulation of organic selenium in alfalfa was verified; as well as in the different dairy products obtained. Meanwhile, at the Sapienza University of Rome, which specializes in chemometric analysis, comparisons were made between the results obtained at laboratory scale and field scale in plants, in cows, in milk and its derivatives. The volume of information generated in the project is very large and the complex data matrices are examined by specialists in supercomputers to draw conclusions.
In addition to financing the research process, the Horizon 2020 program promotes the exchange of science and innovation personnel. The project involved allowing both Argentine researchers and students to travel to Europe for training and also for European researchers to visit Argentina.
Thailand and China recognize Argentine research in selenium
As a result of the works published on this topic, in 2023 Muñoz was contacted to speak at the 7th International Conference on Selenium in the Environment and Human Health in the city of Bangkok, Thailand.
Within the framework of that conference, there was a satellite event that was the creation of the International Day of Friends of Selenium, organized by the Chinese and Thai governments, and established on August 20 in commemoration of the birth of the Swedish chemist Jons Berzelius, discoverer of this element. There, representatives from both countries recognized the important work being carried out in Argentina in relation to selenium. Likewise, they expressed the intention of maintaining the link with Argentina with the aim of promoting international research on the subject.
So much so that, on August 20, the researcher was invited to China to celebrate the first event of the International Day of Friends of Selenium since its creation. There, he visited the city of Enshi, the international capital of selenium, and Wuhan Polytechnic University, presenting his research during the International Symposium on Selenium Research and Industry, particularly focused on the production of enriched mushrooms.
