Abstract
The nutritional availability of selenium(Se)in Se-enriched pumpkin(Se-pumpkin)was assessed by comparing with selenite and Se-enriched Kaiware radish sprouts(Se-sprouts). Male weanling ddY mice were fed a Torula yeast-based Se-deficient diet. After feeding for 3 weeks, mice were divided into 7 groups and fed the basal diet or a diet supplemented with 0.05 or 0.25µg/g of Se as either sodium selenite, Se-pumpkin or Se-sprouts for further one week. Supplementation of Se dose-dependently increased serum and liver Se concentrations and glutathione peroxidase(GPX)activities. In serum Se and GPX, the increases by Se supplementation did not significantly vary with Se source, but in the liver Se and GPX, the increases by selenite supplementation were significantly higher than those by supplementation with Se-pumpkin or Se-sprouts. A difference between the effect of Se-pumpkin and that of Se-sprouts was found in the elevation of liver Se concentration; supplementation with Se-pumpkin caused significantly higher elevation of liver Se than that with Se-sprouts. When liver Se was used, the nutritional availabilities of Se from Se-pumpkin and that Se-sprouts were estimated to be 97% and 65% to selenite Se, respectively. However, when liver GPX was used for the estimation, the availability of Se from either Se-pumpkin or Se-sprouts was less than 50% to selenite Se.
