Variation of Selenium Content in Seed Crops Due to Difference in Their Growing Places

Abstract

Selenium was determined in rice imported from USA, China or Thailand,. and wheat bran, domestic soybean and soybean imported from USA, China Brazil, Argentina or Canada.

Irrespective of country of import, most imported rice had less thari 50 ng/ g of selenium. Bran derived from hard wheat imported from USA or Canada had more than 700 ng/ g of selenium, while domestic wheat bran had less than 40 ng/ g of selenium. Several imported soybean specimens had more than 200 ng/ g of selenium, while most of the domestic soybean had less than 100 ng/ g of selenium. However, the IOM soybean which was imported from the USA and is the most important material for the production of soy-food in Japan showed a low selenium value similarly to the domestic soybean; most of the soybean with high selenium was one used for oil production.

These findings indicate that there is no difference between imported and domestic rice in selenium content, American or Canadian hard wheat has high selenium, and most soybean used for the food production in Japan has less than 100 ng/g of selenium whether domestic or imported.